IDF Kills PIJ Commander Who Held Hostage Rom Braslavski, Plus 2 Hamas Militants

The IDF announced it killed Mahmoud Fatair, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander in the PIJ's Central Gaza Brigade, in a strike on the Deir al-Balah area over the weekend of August 1–2, 2026. The military said Fatair took part in the October 7, 2023 Nova festival attack and held released hostage Rom Braslavski captive for 738 days until his October 2025 release, and had recently been advancing plans to attack IDF troops and Israeli civilians. In separate strikes the same weekend, the IDF also killed two Hamas military-wing members: Abdallah Adnan Taha Abu al-Tayf, described as a Nukhba commander, in central Gaza, and Jalal Tsubeih, a Daraj Tuffah Battalion commander, in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City.