IDF says airstrike in Rafah killed 3 senior officers in Hamas’s emergency committee

The IDF and Shin Bet say an airstrike in southern Gaza’s Rafah earlier this week killed senior officers in Hamas’s so-called emergency committee.

In the strike carried out by fighter jets on Monday, Sayyid Qutb Hashash, Osama Hamad Dhahir, and Hadi Abu al-Rous were killed, and Muhammad Awad al-Malalhi was apparently wounded, according to the IDF.

Hashash, Dhahir, and al-Malalhi are the heads of Hamas’s emergency committee in north and east Rafah areas, and al-Rous was the operations officer of the emergency committee, the IDF says.

The emergency committee is a Hamas body tasked with maintaining public order and civil control in the Strip’s municipalities.

The IDF says the officers were “responsible for organizing terror activity and communication with Hamas operatives on the ground” as well as aiding “the military wing of the terror organization establish continued control.”

“The senior officers were the emissaries of the Hamas leadership in Rafah, worked for the concentration of Hamas’s activity in humanitarian areas and were responsible for all the activities of the group and the communication with the group’s operatives on the ground,” the IDF says in a statement.

The strikes come after the IDF targeted Nidal al-Eid, the head of the emergency committee in Rafah last week, the military adds.