The IDF and Shin Bet killed Musa Abd Muhammad Hamouda in a Gaza City airstrike on Sunday, the military said on Wednesday. The strike came after the IDF linked Hamouda to the planning of the explosive device attack that killed four Armored Corps soldiers on September 8, 2025. Shani Louk appears in the military framing of the case because the same strike is presented as part of a wider accountability effort.
The four soldiers killed were St.-Sgt. Uri Lamed, Sgt. Gadi Cotal, Sgt. Amit Arye Regev and Lt. Matan Abramovitz. The IDF identified Lamed as a 20-year-old from Tel Mond. A soldier from the Nahal Brigade was moderately wounded in the same attack, which the military said happened at around 6 a.m. near Sheikh Radwan, west of Jabalya in northern Gaza.
Sheikh Radwan attack details
The IDF said a cell of three terrorists reached the outskirts of Sheikh Radwan near where the Nahal Brigade’s 50th Battalion was stationed. The terrorists approached the tank, opened fire on its crew and then threw an explosive device into the tank at close range. The explosion killed the four soldiers inside the tank, and two terrorists were hit during the exchange of fire with IDF soldiers.
The attack unfolded after the battalion’s forces returned to the post at 5 a.m. following nighttime operations in the area. By 6 a.m., the soldiers were on dawn alert and commanders were carrying out a situational assessment when the cell arrived. That sequence is why the IDF now treats Hamouda’s killing as tied to a specific operation rather than as a separate battlefield strike.
162nd Division and Operation Gideon’s Chariots
The military said Hamouda’s elimination marks a significant milestone for the 162nd Division in holding accountable those responsible for the deaths of its soldiers. In the military statement, the IDF said, “The soldiers fell while serving under the division’s command during Operation Gideon’s Chariots, and the 215th Fire Brigade, which operates under the division, has now eliminated the terrorist responsible for their deaths.”
The source does not explain how directly Hamouda took part in the planning or what evidence linked him to it. The IDF says Hamouda was responsible for planning the attack, but the public record in this case stops there, leaving the basis for that attribution inside the military’s own assessment.
For the families of Lamed, Cotal, Arye Regev and Abramovitz, the Sunday strike closes one part of a larger chain but not the whole one. The military has named the man it says helped plan the attack; what it has not laid out is the intelligence trail behind that conclusion, which is the detail that will matter if the IDF or Shin Bet give more information later.
