Gaza security source denies Israeli claim of Hamas official’s arrest
A security source in Gaza has denied Israeli claims that the head of Hamas’s internal security in Gaza was arrested, saying the person taken away by Israeli special forces was one of the department’s officers, not its chief.
The source told Al Jazeera that Israeli special forces took him away after storming the officer’s home and killing his wife. According to the source, the head of Gaza’s internal security apparatus was not arrested or abducted.
The same source said that after resistance fighters clashed with the Israeli special forces, Israeli troops used covering fire to retreat. He added that several civilians were killed and others wounded in the clashes.
Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had claimed that his country’s soldiers had detained a senior Hamas official inside the Gaza Strip moments earlier. Israel’s Channel 12 also reported, citing some sources, that the head of Hamas’s internal security apparatus in Gaza had been detained.
An Israeli security source also claimed that the detainee was wounded during the operation and transferred to Israel. Katz later threatened that any response to fire from the Gaza Strip would be ‘strong and clear’ and that Israel’s military operation in the area would continue.
The Gaza Strip has once again become the centre of intense fighting — a small, densely populated area that in recent years has repeatedly been the target of major Israeli operations, and claims and accounts from the parties involved are usually verified with delay and through independent channels.
