The IDF and Shin Bet identified Basir al-Bursh, the eldest son of Gaza Health Ministry Director-General Dr. Munir al-Bursh, as a commander in Hamas’s elite Nukhba force after he was killed in an Israeli strike near Jabalia in northern Gaza.
Basir, 28, was killed on Saturday, September 19. Reuters independently confirmed that he was Munir al-Bursh’s son.
The Israeli agencies said weekend strikes also killed Yahya Hamdouna and Mohammad Rafa’i, two Hamas operatives whom Israel identified as participants in the October 7, 2023 attack. Rafa’i was additionally identified as a member of Hamas’s Daraj-Tuffah Battalion. According to the joint announcement, the three had recently been advancing attacks against Israeli troops and civilians and working to restore Hamas’s capabilities in what the agencies described as systematic violations of the ceasefire.
Open-source material published after Basir’s death also points toward a militant role in Hamas. Analyst Mark Zlochin posted what he identified as a mourning message from one of al-Bursh’s relatives referring to Basir as a “mujahid commander.” Munir al-Bursh himself was separately recorded addressing his dead son with the words, “By God, you did jihad in His path.”
Family Mourning Used Hamas-Linked Language
In a subsequent analysis, Zlochin highlighted another phrase in a family tribute, which he said declared that the al-Bursh family “continues to offer its finest young men” on “tariq dhat al-shawka.”
The expression draws on Qur’an 8:7, where “dhat al-shawka” refers to the armed party, in contrast to an unarmed caravan.
Hamas has also used the phrase in explicitly militant contexts. On October 10, 2023, three days after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, the terror organization mourned senior officials Zakaria Abu Muammar and Jawad Abu Shamala and said the deaths of its leaders and “mujahideen” would increase its determination to continue on “tariq dhat al-shawka.”
Then-Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh used similar language at the January 2024 funeral of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri, saying the movement would remain faithful to the blood of its dead and continue on the same “tariq al-shawka.”
Jewish Onliner Previously Documented the Al-Bursh Family
Basir’s death comes months after Jewish Onliner reported on researcher Salo Aizenberg’s examination of the wider al-Bursh family.
In an April X thread, Aizenberg said he identified at least 11 members of the extended al-Bursh family killed during the war who were described in martyr notices, social-media posts or Hamas-linked material as Hamas fighters, commanders or “mujahids.”
According to Aizenberg, the group included two minors he identified as combatants and two men publicly listed as journalists whom he identified as Hamas-linked. Assem al-Barsh worked for Hamas-affiliated Al-Rai, while Yaqoub al-Borsh worked for Namaa Radio and was reportedly a member of the military media apparatus of Hamas’s Jabalia Battalion. Aizenberg also identified one family member, Samih Adel al-Barsh, as having participated in the October 7 attack.
Al-Bursh’s Own Record
The family connections follow earlier reporting on Munir al-Bursh himself.
A January 2025 Jewish Onliner investigation documented public Facebook posts in which al-Bursh praised figures associated with Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades.
In June 2023, al-Bursh commemorated Ayman Mansour, a senior Al-Qassam Brigades commander, describing him as a “great leader.”
Al-Bursh also participated by recorded address in a February 2024 Zoom event titled “The Flood of the Nation in Support of the Resistance.” The same event featured Hamas political bureau member Musa Abu Marzouk and Palestinian Islamic Jihad deputy secretary-general Muhammad al-Hindi.
Other than the children, there are almost no innocent Palestinians. Criminal conspiracy requires an agreement between two or more people to commit an illegal act, specific intent, and an overt act by at least one party in furtherance of that plan. Then there's aiding and abetting. Thats when another person committed the underlying offense and that the defendant knowingly and actively participated with the intent to make the venture succeeed. The definition given to intent is broad. The defendant must have had the specific intent to facilitate, promote, encourage, or instigate the commission of the crime. These definitions vary according to jurisdiction but those broadly are accurate. And under those categories, in the tight knit communities in that hellpit of psychotic monsters, most adults carry legal responsibility. And if not legal responsibility then moral. What about the parents of the October 7 Hamas butcher who phoned his parents in a state of delirious excitement, boasting how he had the blood of the 10 Jews he had just slaughtered on his hands. What of tjose parents. Who glories in his action. If not legally comolicit then tjey and tje vast majority of Palestunian adults carry overwhelming damning guilt. But what about tje children. These are the most tragic of all of Hamas' victims. Born innocent, but taught from a young age - the formal Jew hatred begins as early as kindergarten - they have no chance of normality. And unfortunately, regrettably, but inevitably, when that perverted 9 year old points his loaded gun at me, im going to eliminate him. And that death and the loss of innocence and potential, his blood, is at the hand of the PA, Hamas, his teachers, his imams, his parents,the perverted, deeply sick Palestinian society, just as surely as if they had pulled the trigger of my gun. Curse them to eternity.