An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Wednesday, the Israeli military said. The IDF identified them as Basel Nabil Abd al-Rahman Kashta and Ahmad Raja al-Shaer, saying they were involved in smuggling weapons and additional military equipment into Gaza. It said the strike aimed “to remove a threat” to Israeli civilians and IDF troops stationed there.
The military’s account
The IDF made those claims in a live-blog entry published Thursday, October 15, 2026. It described the two men as weapons smugglers and said it carried out the strike to remove a threat. Both descriptions, and the stated reason for the attack, came from the military.
The account places the strike in Khan Younis and says it happened Wednesday. It gives no further detail about the precise location, the weapon used, or how the military identified the two men. There’s no account from residents or other witnesses.
The military named both men. It said they “were involved in smuggling weapons and additional military equipment into the Gaza Strip.” But it offered no supporting details about the alleged smuggling: when it happened, what weapons or equipment were involved, or how the IDF linked the men to it.
What the account says—and leaves out
The IDF said the strike was intended to remove a threat to Israeli civilians and troops stationed in Gaza. It doesn’t describe that threat, say whether it was immediate, or explain what information led the military to characterize it that way. The account also includes no response from the men’s families or any Palestinian official.
The report says two people were killed. It gives no information about injuries, damage to buildings, or whether anyone else was at the strike location. It doesn’t describe conditions on the ground afterward.
The account relies on the military’s live-blog entry. It offers no separate confirmation of the IDF’s claims about the men or its stated purpose for the attack, and gives no further description of the circumstances surrounding the strike. No Palestinian testimony appears in the entry described here.
The entry provides the identities the military assigned to the two men, the location and day of the strike, and the IDF’s explanation. But it gives little evidence for the claims. The account says the airstrike killed Basel Nabil Abd al-Rahman Kashta and Ahmad Raja al-Shaer in Khan Younis, and reports the military’s assertion that they were involved in smuggling weapons and equipment into Gaza. It supplies no further detail about the allegation or the threat the military said it sought to remove.
- gaza strip
- israeli airstrike
- khan younis
- israel defense forces
- weapons smuggling
- basel nabil abd al-rahman kashta
- ahmad raja al-shaer