How IDF killed Hamas commander Ahmed Siam, who held 1000 hostages in Gaza (2025)

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It has been over a month since Israel declared war on Hamas, vowing to eliminate the Palestinian militant group. Over 11,000 Palestinians, of which two-thirds were women and minors, have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes since then, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

About 1,200 people have died on the Israeli side, most of them civilians killed in the initial 7 October attack by Hamas.

Last week, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed it killed a Hamas commander, who, the military said, held patients captive as “human shields”.

Who was the Hamas leader killed by the Israeli military? Let’s take a closer look.

Who was Ahmed Siam?

The IDF said it struck Ahmed Siam who “held hostage approximately 1,000 Gazan residents at Rantisi Hospital.”

“IDF aircraft just struck Ahmed Siam, responsible for holding approximately 1,000 Gazan residents and patients hostage at the Rantisi Hospital, and preventing their evacuation southward,” the military wrote on X on Saturday (11 November).

According to the IDF statement, the troops of the Givati Brigade used a fighter jet to target Siam on the basis of intelligence gathered by the Shin Bet and Military Intelligence Directorate, reported The Times of Israel.

The Israeli military said Siam was the commander of Hamas’ Nasser-Radwan company.

IDF aircraft just struck Ahmed Siam, responsible for holding approximately 1,000 Gazan residents and patients hostage at the Rantisi Hospital, and preventing their evacuation southward.

Siam was a commander in Hamas' Naser Radwan Company, and is another example of Hamas using… pic.twitter.com/RGJAISFjxL

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 11, 2023

“Ahmed Siam demonstrates once again that Hamas uses the civilians of the Gaza Strip as human shields for terror purposes,” the IDF was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

The military admitted to targeting the Buraq School in the Al-Nasr neighbourhood in northern Gaza, where it said Siam and a number of Hamas fighters under his command “hid and were killed along with him,” _Anadolu Agenc_y reported citing Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari’s statement.

The strike came two days after the IDF had accused Siam of preventing some 1,000 Palestinians from leaving Rantisi Hospital, which houses Gaza’s only pediatric cancer ward, reported The Times of Israel. The West Asian nation has asked Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza and move to the south as its troops intensify operations in the blockaded Strip.

Dozens killed in Israeli strikes on school

Dozens died in the Israeli bombardment on the Buraq school. As per a Middle East Monitor report, Mohammad Abu Salmiya, director general of the Al-Shifa Hospital, said, “About 50 martyrs were recovered from inside Al-Buraq School on Al-Lababidi Street in the Al-Nasr neighbourhood in Gaza after a missile and artillery bombardment targeted the school this morning.”

Israel has attacked hospitals, residences, refugee camps, and even places of worship in Gaza. It justifies its assault on civilians claiming the presence of Hamas fighters and accusing the group of holding ordinary Palestinians as “human shields”. However, the Palestinian group has maintained it has not placed command centres under and around hospitals.

Israel has killed several Hamas operatives, including Ali Qadi, Muetaz Eid, Zachariah Abu Ma’amar, Joad Abu Shmalah, Belal Alqadra, and Merad Abu Merad, who were linked to the 7 October attacks, reported NDTV.

ALSO READ:International law protects hospitals during war. Then why is Israel attacking them?

Latest in Israel-Hamas war

Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, has stopped working. Fighting outside the hospital between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants has forced thousands to flee the medical facility, but hundreds of patients and others displaced by the war remain stranded there, Associated Press (AP) reported citing health officials.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a day back that the hospital had been without electricity and water for three days. He added that the gunfire and bombings outside the hospital “have exacerbated the already critical circumstances."

“Regrettably, the hospital is not functioning as a hospital anymore,” he said in a post on X.

.@WHO has managed to get in touch with health professionals at the Al-Shifa hospital in #Gaza.

The situation is dire and perilous.

It's been 3 days without electricity, without water and with very poor internet which has severely impacted our ability to provide essential…

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 12, 2023

Israel earlier said it is ready to evacuate babies trapped in Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital. “The staff of the Shifa hospital has requested that tomorrow we help the babies in the pediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed,” Reuters quoted chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari as saying on the weekend.

As per the Hamas-run health ministry, 32 patients, including three premature babies, died over the past three days at the hospital.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency said Monday (13 November) that its fuel depot in Gaza is out of service and it will not be able to resupply hospitals, remove sewage and provide drinking water to the enclave.

The agency chief, commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini, as per Reuters, said, “If we project out a couple of days, by 14 November this will severely impact ambulances and major hospital operations. Some of them have a bit of solar, but it is marginal".

He warned that the situation is “very dire” now and is about to get “much worse”.

With inputs from agencies

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