The IDF and Shin Bet security agency said on Wednesday that a Hamas operative previously responsible for guarding six Israeli hostages, including survivors of severe abuse and psychological torture, was killed in an Israeli airstrike last week.
According to a statement, Hamas operative Zaid Zaki Abd al-Hadi Aql was eliminated in an airstrike on October 29, 2025. The strike, led by Southern Command and carried out by the Israeli Air Force, was part of broader operations against Hamas in response to what the military described as “blatant violations” by the terror group in the preceding week.
חיסול המחבל שהיה אחראי להחזקתם של שישה חטופים בשבי חמאס
(צילום: דובר צה"ל)
The six hostages under Aql’s supervision were Bar Kupershtein, Ohad Ben Ami, Maxim Herkin, Elkana Bohbot, Segev Kalfon and Yosef-Chaim Ohana. Ben Ami was released in an earlier hostage deal and has since advocated publicly for the freedom of those still held. Kupershtein returned to Israel last month and visited the Bnei Brak City Council, where he met with Lithuanian Haredi leader Rabbi Hirsch and shared details of his captivity.
According to his mother, during their time in captivity, the hostages were subjected to severe psychological torture. In one instance, she said, their captors forced them to choose who among them would be executed.
“The terrorists, may their names be erased, came and said: ‘Pick three out of the six—we’re killing three now. You decide who dies,’” she recounted. “Bar sat on the side and said, ‘I am in God’s hands.’ Those were the exact words his mother had taught the people of Israel to always say: ‘We are always in God’s hands.’”
In a separate interview with Army Radio, Kupershtein's mother described the abuse her son and the others endured: “They went through harsh torture, really severe abuse—starvation, worse than anything. No one treats animals this way. He tells me what happened, and I sit in front of him crying, realizing my child is strong and brave like no one else in the world. And then he tells me, ‘Mom, they beat me, but I didn’t feel it—my body was frozen.’”