Israel said to hold remains of 2 top Hamas officers

Turkish news outlet says IDF killed Qassam Brigade commanders Bassil Abul Nagga, Ibrahim al-Ghamour during summer war

Israel killed two senior Hamas field commanders during this summer’s conflict in the Gaza Strip, and has kept their remains, the armed wing of the Palestinian terror group told the Turkish state news agency on Sunday.

An unnamed official in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades confirmed to the Andolu Agency that Bassil Abul Nagga and Ibrahim al-Ghamour, commanders of an elite Hamas unit, were killed in combat with Israeli forces in eastern Khan Yunis during Operation Protective Edge. The report said that Israel still has Abul Nagga and al-Ghamour’s remains.

Hamas made no official announcement of Abul Nagga and al-Ghamour’s deaths, but the Palestinian source in the Qassam Brigades said Hamas officials visited the families of the two slain commanders and gave them the news.

The Turkish news report could not be independently confirmed. The IDF declined commenting, saying it doesn’t respond to foreign news reports.

Earlier in October, a senior figure in Hamas’s political wing said Israel and the Islamist group were poised to kick-start negotiations over the return of the remains of two Israeli soldiers killed during the Gaza fighting, amid indications a deal was on the way.

Mohammed Nazzal said talks on the retrieval of the bodies of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul would probably begin later this month in Cairo, and that Hamas would demand that Israel “pay a price” for every bit of information regarding the whereabouts of the soldiers’ remains.

During the 50-day conflict this summer, the IDF also killed two other senior Hamas military officials, Raed Al-Attar, commander of the Rafah area, and Muhammad Abu Shamala, the head of the Hamas southern command. Israel also targeted Hamas commander Muhammed Deif, but, though there’s been no sign of him since, there’s also been no official confirmation of his death.

Over the course of the seven week conflict between Israel and Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip, more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed, half of whom Israel contends were combatants. Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist organizations fired thousands of rockets and mortars into Israel. Seventy-two Israelis died, 66 of them soldiers.