There are many images burned into the Israeli consciousness from October 7. One of the most painful is the fate of the IDF surveillance soldiers—the tatzpitaniyot.
Mostly eighteen and nineteen years old, these young women were tasked with watching Hamas. They saw the preparations and warned their superiors—and were promptly ignored. When Hamas stormed their bases on October 7, they paid the price for the IDF’s failure. Fifteen were murdered. Seven were kidnapped. All were eventually returned to Israel alive—except one. Corporal Noa Marciano’s body was recovered by the IDF in November 2023. An autopsy determined that she had been wounded during an IDF strike on the apartment where she was being held. Her captor was killed in the strike, and Marciano was rushed to al-Shifa Hospital. There, she encountered Muhammad al-Habil—a doctor by day, and a Hamas commander by night. Faced with a wounded Israeli hostage, he made a choice to abandon humanity. Sensitive readers may wish to skip what happened next. According to Marciano’s father, there exists a video showing the medical professional at al-Shifa deliberately killing his wounded daughter—injecting air into her veins—while she begged for her life. I recount it for one reason: yesterday, the doctor of death, Muhammad al-Habil was eliminated by an IDF strike in response to repeated violations of the ceasefire. Israel can never repay its debt to the tatzpitaniyot—for what they warned, how they were ignored, and for how they were abandoned. But the elimination of those who tormented and murdered them is the least it can do.
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