Israeli military claims air strike killed weapons smuggler for Hamas
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Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Dec 22.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Rafah - The Israeli military said on Dec 23 that one of its warplanes had killed a senior member of Hamas who was responsible for supplying the group with weapons. The claim could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate comment from Hamas.
The Hamas member, Hassan Atrash, was responsible for equipping the military arm with weapons, the Israeli military said in a statement posted on social media. It said he was recently smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The statement said Israel’s domestic security agency, Shin Bet, had played a role in the assassination.
The military said Atrash was killed by an air strike in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza on the border with Egypt. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have left their homes farther north and crowded into Rafah after the Israeli military announced the Rafah region area would not be attacked.
On Dec 21, Mr Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said in a statement on social media that four senior brigade commanders of Hamas had been killed in the war so far. He said the military was continuing to target three other Hamas commanders in Gaza.
One of Israel’s main goals in the war is to dismantle and destroy Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that controls Gaza and led the attacks on Oct 7 in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 Israelis.
So far, however, Israel has not located many of the senior leaders of the group, including Yehia Sinwar, Hamas’ top leader in Gaza. Israeli forces have also been hunting for Rafi Salameh, a Hamas military commander, and Mohammed Deif, the leader of the Hamas armed wing, the Qassam Brigades.
The Palestinian authorities say about 20,000 people have died in Israeli air strikes and other operations, which have devastated much of the enclave. Israel has said its aerial bombardment and use of heavy munitions in densely populated civilian areas are meant to target Hamas military leaders, who, it says, operate from civilian buildings or in tunnels underneath these areas. NYTIMES
