Hamas counterintelligence chief killed in Israeli airstrike, says IDF

The chief of Hamas’s counterintelligence was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the IDF and Shin Bet announced.

The military says the “counterintelligence directorate in Hamas’s general security apparatus,” which Amjad Muhammad Hassan Sha’er headed, is tasked with “suppressing opposition to the regime, counter-espionage and securing senior Hamas officials and their assets in the Gaza Strip and outside of it.”

“The directorate is a vital part of the Hamas terror organization’s general security apparatus, which is responsible, among other things, for building an intelligence assessment that assists senior Hamas officials in decision-making and executing terror attacks against the State of Israel,” the IDF says.

Meanwhile, the IDF says that in the past day, the Israeli Air Force hit dozens of targets across Gaza, including cells of operatives, buildings used by terror groups, tunnels, weapon caches and other infrastructure.

The strikes come as five divisions continue ground operations across the Strip. The military says that the 98th Division has expanded its operations in Gaza City.