Hamas‘ military wing on Sunday confirmed the commander of its northern brigade, Ahmed Al-Ghandour, and three other senior leaders had been killed during Israel‘s offensive against the Islamist movement.
In a statement, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said Ghandour was a member of its military council and named three other leaders who had died, including Ayman Siyyam, who Israeli media reports said was head of the Brigades’ rocket-firing units.
Earlier, Israeli forces said that they killed six Palestinians, including two minors and at least one gunman, in the occupied West Bank. The deaths occurred in the city of Jenin, where Israeli forces raided to detain a Palestinian suspected of involvement in a lethal West Bank ambush.
The military did not immediately elaborate on the Jenin incident, which witnesses described as clashes between gunmen and troops, reported Reuters.
The WAFA official Palestinian news agency said that Israeli forces stormed Jenin “from several directions, firing bullets and surrounding government hospitals and the headquarters of the Red Crescent Society”.
A sixth Palestinian fatality was in Yatma, a village near Nablus city, and another was near a Jewish settlement outside the West Bank town of El Bireh, Palestinian officials said. There was no immediate comment from Israel on those incidents.
Six other Palestinians were injured during the shooting in Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said. A number of Palestinian factions called for a strike in Jenin on Sunday to “mourn the souls of the martyrs”, the WAFA said.