Israel assassinates a senior Hamas official
The Israeli army announces the assassination of Iyad Ahmed Abdelrahman Al-Shanbari, whom it describes as the head of the operations department within Hamas’s military intelligence.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army announced that it had killed a military official from the Hamas movement during an attack carried out the previous day in northern Gaza, where the Hebrew state relies on a policy of targeted assassinations to eliminate the movement’s leaders, while insisting on disarming its fighters.
On Tuesday, five Palestinians, including a child, were killed and at least six others were injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
In a statement, the army said it carried out the attack in cooperation with the internal security service (Shin Bet), claiming that the target was Iyad Ahmed Abdelrahman Al-Shanbari, whom it described as “the head of the operations department within Hamas’s military intelligence.”
It stated that Al-Shanbari was responsible for “compiling the operational situation picture” in Gaza, participated in planning the October 7, 2023 attack, and was “a central figure” in gathering intelligence on Israeli forces. The Israeli army did not provide any independently verifiable evidence to support these claims.
Palestinian sources reported the deaths of several individuals and injuries to others following a series of strikes carried out by Israeli drones on various areas of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, an incident occurring more than six months after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect.
Medical sources in the enclave stated that a nine-year-old child was killed in southern Gaza, while the civil defense affiliated with Hamas reported that two other people were killed in Gaza City in the north of the enclave.
In the same context, witnesses reported that an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle with a direct missile strike, causing it to catch fire completely at the site of the attack. The Israeli army did not issue any immediate comment on these reports when requested.
Regarding the incident that resulted in the child’s death, Israeli media quoted the army as saying that its forces had targeted a person suspected of approaching an area under Israeli control, considering them a security threat. The army added that initial assessments indicate the possible presence of a civilian at the targeted location, who was injured during the operation, noting that the incident is still under review and investigation.
As part of ongoing violations, Israel had killed, through bombardment and gunfire, 818 Palestinians and injured 2,301 others by Tuesday morning, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health.
An agreement was reached after two years of war launched by Israel on October 8, 2023, with American support, which later continued in various forms, resulting in more than 72,000 Palestinian deaths and over 172,000 injuries, as well as massive destruction affecting 90 percent of civilian infrastructure.
