Head of Hamas’s interior ministry said among senior officials killed in Gaza strikes

Two Hamas sources tell AFP that that among those killed in the overnight IDF airstrikes is Mahmoud Abu Watfa, who headed the terror group’s interior ministry.

Abu Watfa, who headed Hamas’s police and internal security services in the Gaza Strip, was killed in a strike on Gaza City, say the two sources, one of them an official at the interior ministry.

Additionally, according to Gazan media reports, the strikes killed Issam Da’alis, a member of Hamas’s political bureau in Gaza and head of the governmental activity monitoring committee, a position roughly akin to Hamas’s prime minister.

However, reports about Da’alis’s death have circulated since July 2024, saying he was killed in an airstrike back then. There has never been an official confirmation of his death by the IDF or Hamas, though the Asharq al-Awsat news site quoted Hamas sources in January as confirming his death.

Abu Ubaida Al-Jamassi, also a member of Hamas’s political bureau in Gaza and, according to some sources, the head of Hamas’s emergency committee — which has managed Gaza during the war — was also killed overnight, reports say.

Another senior official killed is Bahjat Abu Sultan, a high-ranking official in Hamas’s interior ministry, the ministry responsible for security forces outside of its military wing.

Furthermore, Ahmad Al-Khatta, the director-general of Hamas’s justice ministry in Gaza, was also killed.