IDF Kills Hamas Terrorist Who Murdered Noa Marciano in Captivity

The IDF announced Wednesday evening that it had killed a Hamas terrorist directly involved in the murder of IDF surveillance soldier Noa Marciano while she was held captive in Gaza. The targeted airstrike was carried out earlier in the day in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp, the military said.

According to the IDF, the terrorist was Muhammad Issam Hassan al-Habil, a Hamas cell commander who played a direct role in Marciano’s killing after her abduction on October 7. Israeli officials said the strike fulfills a commitment made to Marciano’s family to pursue all those responsible for her murder.

The operation was conducted with intelligence guidance from the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service. The strike followed an overnight attack on Israeli forces in northern Gaza, during which a reservist officer was seriously wounded by Palestinian gunmen. The IDF said the airstrike was part of its response to developments overnight.

In a joint statement, the IDF and Shin Bet said that interrogations of captured suspects established that al-Habil “brutally murdered” Marciano while she was being held in Hamas captivity. The military added that the operation was enabled by intelligence gathered by the Gaza Division, the formation in which Marciano herself had served as a surveillance soldier in the 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit.

Marciano, 19, was abducted on October 7 from the Nachal Oz military base. She was one of several surveillance soldiers taken captive in the attack. A month later, the IDF announced that she had been killed in Gaza, and her body was recovered by Israeli forces in November 2023.

At the time, Hamas claimed Marciano had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israeli officials rejected that assertion, saying intelligence and a pathology report showed that while Marciano had been wounded during an Israeli strike on November 9, her injuries were not life-threatening. According to the IDF, she was subsequently taken into Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where she was murdered by a Hamas terrorist.

Following Wednesday’s announcement, Marciano’s mother, Adi Marciano, said the family had been promised accountability. “We were promised that everyone involved in Noa’s murder in Gaza would be eliminated, and this promise was kept today,” she said.

“There is no real comfort in this,” she added. “But there is knowledge that justice was done, even if only partially. Nothing will bring her back to us.” Marciano described her daughter as “a beloved child, full of light, sensitivity and joy of life,” saying her absence accompanies the family “every day and with every breath,” and that “the pain of her loss will never end.”

Marciano was the eldest of three siblings and lived in Modi’in. Her case became one of the most widely known hostage stories of the early weeks of the war after Hamas released a propaganda video showing her alive in captivity before later displaying footage of her body.

Several Hamas terrorists involved in guarding Marciano have been killed in Israeli strikes during the war. Israeli officials said the pursuit of those responsible for the October 7 atrocities remains ongoing, as fighting continues in Gaza amid periodic escalations and retaliatory strikes.