IDF Retroactively Claims Nuseirat Victim Mohammed Abu Mallouh Was Hamas Weapons Manufacturer

The IDF and Shin Bet issued a joint statement on May 25, 2026 claiming that Mohammed Abu Mallouh — killed in the May 24 airstrike on his apartment in Nuseirat refugee camp alongside his wife Alaa Zaqlan and their 6-month-old infant son Osama — was a senior Hamas weapons production official who had been manufacturing anti-armor munitions inside the apartment during the October 2025 ceasefire. The IDF described Abu Mallouh as a 'key Hamas operative' whose elimination was operationally necessary despite the civilian harm. UN OHCHR, Amnesty International, and B'Tselem rejected the retroactive combatant designation as legally insufficient under international humanitarian law, noting the pattern of post-hoc justifications following strikes that kill women and infants. Legal experts cited the principle of proportionality: even if the IDF's claim about the father were true, the killing of his wife and 6-month-old infant required independent proportionality analysis that Israeli forces have never provided. The post-ceasefire Palestinian death toll stood at approximately 945+ following the Nuseirat strike.