The IDF said Friday that it had killed Ahmed Hussein Mohammed Kafina, commander of the central Gaza area for the terrorist organization Kataeb al-Mujahideen, in the southern Gaza Strip earlier this week.
According to the military, Kafina was involved in the October 7 massacre, took part in the abduction of Avinatan Or and Noa Argamani and directed the abduction of Sudthisak Rinthalak.
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IDF forces killed terrorist Ahmed Hussein Mohammed Kafina in the Gaza Strip
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
The abduction of Avinatan Or and Noa Argamani
The IDF said Kafina infiltrated Israel during the October 7 attack and commanded other terrorists who entered with him. It added that throughout the war, and particularly in recent weeks, he had advanced terrorist attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians.
“The terrorist posed an immediate threat to the troops and was eliminated in a precise aerial strike,” the IDF said.
“IDF troops under the Southern Command remain deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” it added.
Argamani and Or were abducted from the Nova music festival near Re’im on October 7, 2023. Footage of their abduction, showing Argamani being taken away on a motorcycle as she screamed for help while Or was led away by four terrorists in the background, circulated worldwide and became one of the defining images of the massacre.
Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or after his release
After 245 days in captivity, Argamani was rescued on June 8, 2024, from the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza in a joint operation by the IDF, Shin Bet and the police’s elite Yamam counterterrorism unit. Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv, who were also abducted from the Nova festival, were rescued alive in the operation.
Yamam officer Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora was critically wounded during the rescue and died shortly afterward.
Or was released from Hamas captivity on Oct. 13, 2025, as part of the third hostage deal, after 738 days in captivity.
Rinthalak, a Thai citizen who worked in agriculture in Israel, was abducted from the area of Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7. He was listed as a hostage for months before the IDF and Shin Bet announced in early June 2025 that he had been murdered during the attack and that his body had been located and returned to Israel in a military operation in the Gaza Strip.