Amid spiraling tension in West Asia following Israel's fresh airstrikes and ground offensives on Gaza, Israeli Defence Force (IDF) on Thursday claimed it had killed the head of Hamas's internal security agency, Rashid Jahjouh, in an air strike on the Gaza Strip.
Taking it to X, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said, "In recent days, struck and eliminated the terrorist Rashid Jahjouh, head of the Hamas General Security Service, who assumed his position after the elimination of his predecessor, Sami Oudeh, in July 2024."
Adraee also claimed that in a separate raid, Israeli forces also eliminated Ismail Abdel-Al who "was considered a prominent member of the Islamic Jihad's arms smuggling network", referring to a Palestinian militant group that has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza.
Israel's Renewed Strikes Across Gaza
Israeli strikes killed over 400 Palestinians on Tuesday alone, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry as they resumed heavy strikes across Gaza shattering a ceasefire that had halted the war and facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages.
Israel blamed the renewed fighting on Hamas because the militant group rejected a new proposal that departed from their signed agreement.
On Thursday, the Israeli military claimed that airstrikes were launched from the Gaza Strip aimed at Central Israel and they had set off air raid sirens.
This came as the first offensive from the side of Hamas since Israel ended a ceasefire with a surprise bombardment of the territory on Tuesday and killed at least 400 people including children.
Gaza's Health Ministry informed that Israeli strikes overnight into Thursday have killed at least 85 people, mostly women and children. The strikes hit multiple homes in the middle of the night as the victims slept.
The territory's civil defence agency said Thursday that 504 people had been killed so far in the renewed Israeli assault, including more than 190 children.
Hamas on Tuesday named the head of its government in the Gaza Strip, Essam al-Dalis, and interior ministry head Mahmud Abu Watfa, among a list of officials it said were killed in a wave of Israeli strikes this week.
The Israeli military confirmed it had killed Dalis, a member of Hamas's political bureau who became the head of its administration in Gaza in June 2021.
