The IDF launched an intense wave of airstrikes and shelling across parts of Gaza City on Tuesday as an Israel-backed Palestinian armed group reportedly carried out an operation to capture a senior Hamas official. Defense Minister Israel Katz later confirmed that a high-ranking Hamas member had been taken into custody.
Katz did not identify the Hamas figure or disclose who was responsible for apprehending him. It was also not immediately clear where the captured official was being held.
Palestinian reports claimed that a “special Israeli unit” entered western Gaza City and was subsequently detected by Hamas operatives. According to those accounts, the IDF responded with artillery fire and airstrikes to protect the force and enable it to withdraw. Palestinian media reported that at least three people were killed and eight others wounded in the strikes.
Palestinian outlets have previously described Israel-backed Palestinian groups fighting Hamas inside Gaza as “Israeli forces.” Israel has acknowledged providing support to anti-Hamas factions in the Strip, including aerial assistance during some of their operations.
The IDF confirmed that it had attacked “a number of targets” in Gaza, explaining that the strikes were intended to “remove threats to security forces.” The military did not clarify whether the security forces it was referring to were IDF troops or members of an allied Palestinian militia.
Bechasdei Hashem, no Israeli soldiers were wounded during the incident.
Speaking in the Gaza-border community of Netiv Ha’asara, Katz addressed the ongoing operation, saying that “even as we stand here, the activity of our forces in Gaza City continues at all times.”
“A short while ago, a senior Hamas terrorist was arrested. This is our policy: We do not wait for threats, we pursue Hamas terrorists, thwart them, and destroy their terror infrastructure,” Katz said.
Katz offered no additional information about the arrest. An Israeli security source, however, said the man captured in the operation was the head of Hamas’s internal security apparatus.
Saudi broadcaster Al-Hadath reported that Palestinian militias supported by Israel had attempted to abduct an unidentified person in Gaza City. Qatar-based Al-Araby TV similarly reported that an armed Palestinian group had sought to seize a senior member of Hamas’s internal security establishment.
A Hamas-linked website, Al-Majd al-Amni, presented a different version of events, reporting that “an Israeli special force attempted to carry out a security operation aimed at targeting a figure from the ‘resistance’ [a term used for terror groups in Gaza], but [Hamas’s] security forces thwarted the mission.”
“The failure is an embarrassment for the occupation army,” the report added.
Another Hamas-affiliated outlet, Al-Quds al-Ikhbariya, claimed that Hamas fighters tried to capture members of the “Israeli special force” during the confrontation but were prevented from doing so when Israeli aircraft intervened.
Hamas itself did not immediately issue an official statement addressing either the operation or Israel’s assertion that one of the terror group’s senior figures had been captured.
Israel has spent more than a year supporting several armed Palestinian factions opposed to Hamas inside the Gaza Strip. That assistance has reportedly included weapons, intelligence, food, cigarettes and air support, while wounded members of the militias have been flown into Israel for medical treatment. Israel has also supplied the groups with light arms, primarily rifles.
Videos and public statements issued by the various factions suggest that their combined forces consist of no more than several hundred armed men. Their activities have continued intermittently, including armed confrontations with Hamas and efforts to cultivate greater support among Gazans. Earlier this year, one faction operating from IDF-controlled territory in southern Gaza said it was destroying Hamas tunnels on Israel’s behalf.
The latest operation came one day after the IDF announced that it had killed a Hamas commander responsible for helping supply weapons to the terror organization.
According to the military, Omar Mohammed Roshdy Saraj was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood. The IDF identified Saraj as a commander in Hamas’s “supply and maintenance company” in Gaza City.
“As part of his role, the terrorist managed the supply of weapons to Hamas terrorists in Gaza City,” the military said.
{Matzav.com}
