Israel captures Hamas internal security chief in Gaza raid: Netanyahu
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had captured a senior Hamas figure during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian health officials said the operation killed four people.
In a statement, Netanyahu identified the captured man as the head of Hamas's internal security apparatus in Gaza, adding that he had been involved with Israeli hostages previously held there. He did not provide further details.
Hamas's Interior Ministry in Gaza and Israeli media named the man as Muein al-Arabid. The Israeli military and the Shin Bet domestic security service said in a joint statement that al-Arabid had 'recently worked to consolidate the Hamas terrorist organisation's control over the northern Gaza Strip and to advance terrorist attacks against IDF troops.' They said he had been transferred to Israel for questioning.
The operation included an Israeli-allied militia inside the Strip, a Gaza security source told AFP. Israeli media identified the group as the Abu Shabab militia, described as the largest anti-Hamas paramilitary force in Gaza.
The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Interior and National Security said in a separate statement that Israel 'abducted Internal Security Service officer Muein Mohammed Al-Arabid after he was wounded while engaging the attacking Israeli force.' The statement said his wife was killed and several of his children were injured.
A Gaza security source who spoke to AFP denied that al-Arabid had been involved in military operations against Israel or with Israeli hostages, saying his work consisted of 'overseeing efforts to combat collaborators' with Israel.
Hamas condemned what it called a 'criminal operation' and said it had held communications with mediators, including Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza under the US-backed 'Board of Peace' tasked with implementing an October ceasefire plan.
In tandem with the ground operation, the Israeli air force struck several targets in the area to remove threats to its forces, the army statement said. Eyewitnesses reported around a dozen strikes on Tuesday morning in western Gaza City, where the territory's civil defence agency said three children and a woman were killed. Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital confirmed the toll.
AFP footage from the aftermath showed the bodies of two children wrapped in shrouds being carried through the streets, where the mangled wreckage of a vehicle lay.
'A jeep stopped in the middle of the street and started firing indiscriminately left and right. It carried on firing at us like rain for more than 15 minutes,' Wafika al-Helou told AFP, describing a 'terrifying and unbearable' scene. Another eyewitness, Mutaz Abu Asr, spoke of gunfire and drones, describing more than five strikes in less than three minutes.
Separately, in the central Gaza Strip, Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah reported that Israeli fire killed two other people, including a girl. The civil defence confirmed the toll.
Despite the US-backed ceasefire, violence has not halted in Gaza, with Israel continuing to target Palestinians it says are militants. Israeli operations in Gaza have killed at least 1,326 people since the ceasefire came into effect, according to the Palestinian territory's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority but whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations. The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks over the same period, as well as the death of one civilian contractor.
