Hamas claims high-ranking Khan Younis police officer shot dead by ‘Israeli agents’

Hamas’s interior ministry says Khan Younis police investigations chief Lt. Col. Muhammad al-Astal, 40, was killed in a drive-by shooting this morning in Mawasi, near Khan Younis in south Gaza.

The ministry says an initial investigations indicates his killers, who have not been caught, worked for Israel. It does not provide any evidence.

“According to an initial investigation, the shooting came from a car that was occupied by several agents of the Israeli occupation,” the ministry says in a statement. “The security apparatus has launched an investigation into the incident and is working to apprehend the perpetrators.”

The killing comes a month after Hamas claimed Israeli-backed assassins shot dead Lt. Col. Ahmed Zamzam in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.