Israel said Sunday it killed a senior Hamas commander in an overnight airstrike in southern Gaza, while in Jordan three men were condemned to death for a deadly attack on a church, capping a turbulent day across the Middle East that also saw Yemen’s Houthi rebels free hundreds of detainees and Iran claim a strike on a U.S. military site in Bahrain.
Hamas confirms commander’s death
Hamas confirmed that Samir Mahmoud Hassan Abu Younis, commander of its Rafah Brigade, was killed in an Israeli strike just after midnight Saturday, and said his funeral would be held later Sunday, The Associated Press said.
Al Jazeera said the strike hit the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis. The Israeli military and the Shin Bet security agency said in a joint statement that they targeted a senior Hamas military commander in a drone strike there.
The military said Abu Younis had been working to rebuild Hamas and was directing plans “to advance and carry out terror attacks.” It said other militants were also targeted but gave no further details. Reuters said Hamas described Abu Younis as a senior commander who helped plan and oversee the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
His predecessor at the head of the Rafah Brigade was killed in an Israeli strike two months ago, the AP said.
The strike comes as Israeli attacks have intensified across Gaza despite the October 2025 ceasefire. Al Jazeera said the number of cold-related deaths in the territory has climbed to 11 after a 9-month-old baby died of hypothermia, the first such death this winter. Most of Gaza’s displaced residents are living in tents and damaged buildings, where recent heavy rain has caused widespread water damage.
Jordan sentences 3 to death over church shooting
In Jordan, a court sentenced three men to death for an Oct. 23 shooting at St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church in Hamoud, a village north of the city of Karak and about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the capital, Amman.
The gunmen targeted mourners at a funeral, killing nine people and wounding dozens in one of the deadliest attacks on Jordan’s Christian minority in decades, the AP said.
The defendants, two brothers and their brother-in-law, were arrested three days after the attack following a gunfight with security forces in which all three were wounded. Jordanian officials described them as adherents of an extremist ideology but said they were not tied to any organized group. No group claimed responsibility.
Days after the attack, Jordan carried out airstrikes in southern Syria that it said targeted militant groups connected to the shooting. Syrian authorities disputed Jordan’s account and reported civilian deaths.
Houthis free 600 detainees
In Yemen, the Iran-backed Houthis released about 600 detainees captured during the latest surge in fighting, the largest unilateral release in the country’s 12-year civil war, said Abdul-Qader al-Murtaza, a Houthi official responsible for prisoner affairs.
Separately, the Southern Armed Forces, a group allied with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, said its fighters had withdrawn from areas along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait under sustained Houthi attacks. The group said it would now concentrate on securing the southern city of Aden, seat of the internationally recognized government, and on trying to lift the Houthi siege of Taiz.
Houthi health officials said an airstrike early Sunday on a residential neighborhood in northeastern Sanaa wounded two women and two children, who were taken to Muayyad Hospital. Ministry spokesperson Anees al-Asbahi blamed Saudi Arabia without providing evidence. The kingdom did not immediately respond.
Saudi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said air defenses intercepted two Houthi ballistic missiles fired toward Riyadh and shot down two drones over the oil-rich Eastern Province. The exchanges are part of a monthslong escalation that has revived Yemen’s civil war after more than four years of ceasefire, the AP said.
Iran claims strike on U.S. radar in Bahrain
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed early Sunday that it struck a radar system at an American helicopter base in Bahrain, the state-run IRNA news agency said.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the region, did not immediately comment. On Friday, CENTCOM said it intercepted two Iranian drones bound for Bahrain and rejected an Iranian claim at the time that a U.S. early-warning radar had been hit.
Bahrain’s military said its air defenses intercepted several Iranian projectiles before they reached their targets. The Interior Ministry earlier issued two nationwide threat alerts, its first since September, saying “Iran continues its systematic hostile approach through its sinful attacks targeting the Kingdom of Bahrain.”
Iran rebuffs German call to halt enrichment
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei rejected Germany’s demand that Tehran stop enriching uranium, saying Iran has that right as a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
“Iran’s right to enrichment is not something Germany, France or others have granted us,” Baghaei said.
He also accused the International Atomic Energy Agency of “nontechnical speculation” about a possible new enrichment facility in Isfahan. He acknowledged the agency lost access to Iran’s nuclear sites during the war with the United States and Israel but said Iran had not suspended its safeguards obligations. Asked about any renewed U.S. strikes, he said Iran would “not leave any blow unanswered.”
Multiple fronts, few signs of de-escalation
Sunday’s developments show a region where several conflicts are running in parallel and feeding off one another. In Gaza, Israel’s killing of a second Rafah Brigade commander in two months signals a systematic effort to dismantle Hamas’ leadership in the south, even under a ceasefire.
Israel argues it is preventing Hamas from regrouping; Hamas and its supporters view the strikes as eroding the truce. Meanwhile, deaths from cold among displaced Gazans point to a worsening humanitarian situation as winter sets in.
Jordan’s death sentences reflect the kingdom’s determination to respond forcefully to an attack that struck at its tradition of interfaith coexistence. The quick verdicts, alongside the earlier airstrikes in Syria, suggest Amman wants to deter extremist violence decisively, though Syria’s dispute over civilian casualties shows the cross-border response remains contested.
In Yemen, the Houthi detainee release could be read as a goodwill gesture or as a public relations move amid intensified fighting. It came on the same day the government-allied Southern Armed Forces retreated from the Bab el-Mandeb, a strategically vital shipping lane, indicating the Houthis are gaining ground militarily.
Iran’s claimed strike in Bahrain, coming two days after a similar claim CENTCOM rejected, raises the risk of direct confrontation with U.S. forces. Combined with Tehran’s refusal to halt enrichment and its warning against renewed U.S. attacks, the picture is one of hardening positions on both the military and nuclear tracks.
Sources: The Associated Press (AP); Reuters; The Independent; Al Jazeera; Iran’s IRNA news agency
