Separate strike in south Gaza kills Hamas arms smuggler

IDF: Slain Gazan named as Doctors Without Borders staffer was Islamic Jihad rocket maker

Military says Fadi al-Wadiya was electronics and chemistry expert in terror group; MSF issues a denial, leading IDF to release photo of him in PIJ uniform

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

Left: Fadi al-Wadiya, a Doctors Without Borders member who the IDF says was a PIJ rocket expert, who was killed in a strike in Gaza City, June 25, 2024. (Courtesy of Doctors Without Borders on X); Right: An image released by the IDF on June 26, 2024, showing al-Wadiya in the uniform of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group. (Israel Defense Forces)
Left: Fadi al-Wadiya, a Doctors Without Borders member who the IDF says was a PIJ rocket expert, who was killed in a strike in Gaza City, June 25, 2024. (Courtesy of Doctors Without Borders on X); Right: An image released by the IDF on June 26, 2024, showing al-Wadiya in the uniform of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group. (Israel Defense Forces)

A Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket expert, named by Doctors Without Borders as a staffer, was killed in an Israeli drone strike in Gaza City on Tuesday, the military said.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, reported on Tuesday morning that Fadi al-Wadiya was one of its staffers.

The organization said in a post on X that al-Wadiya was killed along with five other people, among them three children, while riding his bicycle to the MSF clinic where he worked.

“Killing a healthcare worker while on his way to provide vital medical care to wounded victims of the endless massacres across Gaza is beyond shocking; it’s cynical and abhorrent,” Caroline Seguin, the organization’s local operations manager, was quoted saying in a statement.

The Israel Defense Forces later in the day confirmed that it had killed al-Wadiya, saying that he was an Islamic Jihad operative involved in developing the terror group’s missiles.

Al-Wadiya was involved in “the development and advancement of the organization’s missile array,” the military said in a statement.

The IDF said he was also a “source of knowledge” within the Islamic Jihad, in the fields of electronics and chemistry.

It published footage of the drone strike in Gaza City.

After MSF on Wednesday issued a denial that al-Wadiya had been a terror operative, the IDF released images showing al-Wadiya wearing a PIJ uniform

An image released by the IDF on June 26, 2024, showing Doctors Without Borders staffer Fadi al-Wadiya in the uniform of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group. (Israel Defense Forces)

In another strike on Tuesday, the IDF said a Hamas operative involved in smuggling arms to the terror group through the Rafah border crossing and via tunnels passing underground into Egypt, was killed in an airstrike.

According to the IDF, Wissam Abu Ishaq was targeted in a drone strike in the southern Gaza Strip.

It said that he was involved in running weapons to Hamas, and in recent years, smuggled arms through the Rafah Crossing and cross-border underground routes.

Since Israel’s takeover of the so-called Philadelphi Route, the Egypt-Gaza border area, military officials have said that Hamas is no longer able to smuggle weapons into the Strip.

A view of the Philadelphi Corridor, the Egypt-Gaza border area in Rafah, on June 18, 2024. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

A separate airstrike overnight targeted a rocket launching site in southern Gaza’s Rafah, the military said on Wednesday morning.

The IDF also said that fighter jets and other aircraft struck dozens more targets across Gaza over the past day, including booby-trapped buildings, buildings used by terror groups, tunnels, and cells of gunmen.

IDF: Hamas fired at UNICEF convoy

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Hamas launched mortar shells at Israeli troops escorting a United Nations humanitarian aid convoy in the central Gaza Strip, the military said, publishing footage of the incident.

The IDF and COGAT had been coordinating a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) convoy, part of a mission to reunite children from northern Gaza with their families in the south, according to the military.

“During the coordinated activity, the Hamas terrorist organization fired a projectile at the humanitarian route near the UNICEF aid convoy and IDF soldiers securing the area,” it said in a statement.

Video published by the IDF shows at least one mortar striking just a few meters from soldiers and a UN vehicle.

It said the convoy later proceeded along the route as planned, and there were no injuries in the attack.

“Despite the IDF’s attempts to increase humanitarian aid and activities for Gazan residents, Hamas continues to exploit these efforts and endanger the lives of Gazan civilians,” the military added.

The war began on October 7 when thousands of Hamas terrorists attacked southern Israel under a barrage of rockets fired at population centers all over the country. They brutally killed 1,200 people, amid multiple instances of torture and rape, and seized 251 hostages. Israel swiftly declared war on Hamas, vowing to topple the terror group’s regime in Gaza and free the hostages.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 37,500 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.

Israel has said 315 troops have been killed during the ground offensive against Hamas and amid operations along the Gaza border. The toll includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission. A civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also been killed in the Strip.

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