Hamas member dies in ‘accidental explosion’ in Gaza, terror group says
Qassam Brigades says terrorist met his end after ‘a great and honorable jihadi journey’
Dov Lieber is a former Times of Israel Arab affairs correspondent.
A member of Hamas’s military wing died on Sunday in an “accidental explosion” in the northern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian terror group said.
Hamas’s military wing the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement on its website that 22-year-old Mohammad Fathi Janid, “one of its heroic jihadi fighters from the town of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, was killed by an accidental explosion.”
The statement added that Janid was killed after “a great and honorable jihadi journey.”
The terror group posted pictures of Janid on its website.
https://twitter.com/qassam_arabic10/status/949982958760448000
Janid was buried later on Sunday, in a service attended by hundreds.
https://twitter.com/qassam_arabic10/status/950016886825156608
Several Hamas operatives have been killed or injured in accidental blasts and tunnel collapses in recent months.
In November, 10 Islamic Jihad and 2 Hamas members were killed when Israel blew up an attack tunnel that ran under the border into Israel.
Hamas is engaged in training its fighters, building rockets and digging tunnels in preparation for another round of conflict with Israel. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008.
Gaza terrorists have dug dozens of tunnels, many reaching under the border into Israel, to launch attacks inside the Jewish state. While Israel destroyed many of them during the summer 2014 war, it says Hamas has since been rebuilding the network, and Hamas has bragged about doing so.
Last year, 22 members of Hamas’s armed wing were killed while “preparing equipment,” the majority in a string of tunnel collapses, the terror group said.
