Hamas military wing says member dies in ‘weapon-related error’
Palestinian terror group fighter killed while ‘taking up a position’ in the border area between Israel and Gaza
Adam Rasgon is a former Palestinian affairs reporter at The Times of Israel
The Hamas military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said one of its members died on Thursday as a result of “a weapon-related error.”
The Islamist terror group’s armed wing identified the man who died as 21-year-old Ahmad al-Fayoumi.
“He went up to heaven as a martyr… as a result of a weapon-related error while taking up a position in the cracks,” the Qassam Brigades said in a statement, using a term to refer to the border region between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
The Qassam Brigades did not provide details on the “weapon-related error.”
Pictures posted on Twitter showed what appeared to be Fayoumi’s remains at a hospital in Gaza.
On Wednesday, another Qassam Brigades member died. The terror group’s armed wing said 27-year-old Hamdi Hejazi succumbed to wounds he sustained earlier this month “in an accident while taking up a position in the cracks,” without elaborating.
In January 2018, then-senior Hamas official Imad al-Alami shot himself in the head “while examining his personal weapon in his home,” Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for the terror group, said at the time.
However, some experts speculated that a rival Hamas member may have shot Alami. Weeks after the incident, Alami, who was regarded as a hardliner and a backer of Hamas’s ties with Iran, died at a hospital in Gaza.
The Times of Israel Community.