Nukhba (), Nukhba Force or Al-Nukhba are naval commandos in a

special forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

unit of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...

. Israel claims the unit led the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 at the beginning of the

2023 Israel–Hamas war } The ongoing armed conflict between Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups and Israel military forces began on 7 October 2023, 50 years after the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Hamas's coordinated surprise offensive, codenamed "Al-Aqsa Fl ...

. According to the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

(IDF), " e Nukhba elite forces consist of terrorists selected by senior Hamas operatives, designated to carry out

terrorist attacks The following is a list of terrorist incidents that have not been carried out by a state or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism). Assassinations are listed at List of assassinated people. Definitions of terrori ...

such as

ambush An ambush is a long-established military tactics, military tactic in which a combatant uses an advantage of concealment or the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbru ...

es, raids, assaults,

infiltration Infiltration may refer to: Science, medicine, and engineering *Infiltration (hydrology), downward movement of water into soil *Infiltration (HVAC), a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning term for air leakage into buildings *Infiltration (me ...

through terror tunnels, as well as

anti-tank missile An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a Missile guidance, guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy Armoured fighting vehicle, heavily armored military v ...

, rocket, and

sniper A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...

fire." Their main focus is to attack on or underwater, and to infiltrate Israel via its beaches, using underwater explosives and guided missiles which are unaffected by the Iron Dome air defense system. Targets include Israeli infrastructure at sea, military and civilian vessels and power stations.

Training

Nukhba members begin their long and rigorous land and sea-based training when they are 18 to 20 years old, and may be recruited from fishermen. The starting salary of a month is over five times the average salary in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

Organization

The Nukhba are distributed geographically across the Gaza Strip. While the unit is secretive, they use

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

for

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

, such as posting videos on the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades' Telegram channel.

History

Hamas formed its naval unit in about 2010 after the Gaza War (2008–2009) to strengthen its efforts against Israel and help smuggle weapons into Gaza by sea. In July 2014, four divers emerged from the sea on

Zikim Zikim ( he, זִיקִים) is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located in the northern Negev desert, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The kibbutz was established in 1949 on lan ...

Beach armed with

grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...

s and automatic weapons to mount an attack on a tank, but were killed by the IDF. Their units sustained losses in the

2014 Gaza War The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge ( he, מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן, translit=Miv'tza Tzuk Eitan, ), was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that h ...

. In 2015, they were being trained and equipped in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. In 2017, some of its members left to join

Islamic State An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

in the

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a l ...

. In October 2017, Nukhba commandos were amongst the 14 terrorists killed when one of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's tunnels collapsed. By 2018, the underwater commando unit had around 1,500 members. In January 2022, Nukhba divers claimed they had been attacked by a

military dolphin A military marine mammal is a cetacean or pinniped that has been trained for military uses. Examples include bottlenose dolphins, seals, sea lions, and beluga whales. The United States and Soviet militaries have trained and employed oceanic dolph ...

which Israel was using to counter their operations.

2023 Israel–Hamas war

On October 7, Hamas forces launched an indiscriminate attack on Israeli civilians, killing more than 1,300 men, women and children. According to Israel's security service '' Shin Bet'', captured Nukhba members were ordered to kill everyone they saw and carry out atrocities against civilians including women and children. If they brought hostages back to Gaza they would be richly rewarded. In a video recording of interviews with captured Nukhba, they described how they set fire to houses and threw grenades. One of the men killed had been watering his plants before the terrorists surprised him. The

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

identified themselves as

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

and admitted that the murders were contrary to

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

. In the Battle of Zikim, naval commandos landed boats on Zikim Beach and stormed the

Bahad 4 Bahad 4 ( he, בה"ד 4), commonly known as Batar Zikim (בט"ר זיקים, ''lit.'' Zikim Training Base) is a training base (''Bahad'') belonging to the Israel Defense Forces. Zikim is located 8 km south of Ashkelon. It was named after the ...

military base.

Aftermath

In the aftermath, IDF warplanes have been specifically targeting Nukhba, with the intention of killing them all. ''Shin Bet'' set up a new unit called

Nili NILI was a Jewish espionage network which assisted the United Kingdom in its fight against the Ottoman Empire in Palestine between 1915 and 1917, during World War I. NILI is an acronym which stands for the Hebrew phrase "Netzah Yisrael Lo Yeshak ...

an abbreviation of the Hebrew phrase () tasked with hunting down Nukhba members. On October 14, the IDF announced that they had killed Ali Qadhi, a Nukhba company commander, in a drone attack. In 2005, Israel had arrested him for kidnapping and murdering civilians, but he was released in 2011 as part of the

Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange The Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange (; ), also known as "Wafa al-Ahrar" (''"Faithful to the free"''), followed a 2011 agreement between Israel and Hamas to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,027 prisoners — almost all Palest ...

. Bilal al Qadr, a commander of the Nukhba forces' southern

Khan Yunis Khan Yunis ( ar, خان يونس, also spelled Khan Younis or Khan Yunus; translation: ''Caravansary fJonah'') is a city in the southern Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Khan Yunis had a population of 142,6 ...

unit that carried out the

Kfar Aza massacre On 7 October 2023, around 70 Hamas militants attacked Kfar Aza, a kibbutz about from the border with the Gaza Strip, massacring residents and 2023 Israel–Hamas war hostage crisis, abducting several hostages. Kfar Aza had more than 700 res ...

, was killed by an

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defense ...

air strike. According to the IDF, both men had played key roles in the October 7 attack. On October 17, Hamas' fourth most senior commander Ayman Nofal who had responsbility for the Nukhba and the Be'eri and

Re'im music festival massacre On 7 October 2023, the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas initiated a surprise invasion of Israel from the Gaza Strip. As part of the attack, 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded by Hamas at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering ...

s was killed in an airstrike. Following the attack, Nukhba members Amer Abu Awash and Hassan Zaarab were detained and interrogated by Israeli authorities. During the interrogation, according to the IDF, Abu Awash revealed that Hamas has been using medical facilities in the Gaza Strip, especially the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, to shield themselves from Israeli strikes and that the underground levels of the hospital are utilized for hiding resources like weapons and ammunition. Hamas denied these claims. On October 31, the IDF announced that its fighter jets had killed Ibrahim Biari, who it claimed was commander of Hamas' Central Jabaliya Battalion and "was one of the leaders responsible for sending Nukbha terrorist operatives to Israel".

References