IDF says it killed head of Hamas’s internal security apparatus in southern Gaza

The Israeli Air Force conducted a strike overnight that killed the head of the Hamas terror group’s internal security apparatus in the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF says.

The army says Hussam Shahwan had been hiding among civilians in the humanitarian zone on the outskirts of Khan Younis.

Palestinian media described Shahwan as the deputy chief of Hamas’s police force. The reports, including in the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV station, said that the police chief Mahmoud Salah was also killed in the strike, in addition to nine others, including women and children.

The military, however, doesn’t mention Salah in its statement.

It says that under Shahwan, the Hamas internal security apparatus — tasked with generating intelligence against Israeli forces operating in Gaza — has conducted violent interrogations of Gazans, while violating their human rights and persecuting dissidents.

The army says many steps were taken ahead of the strike to mitigate harm to civilians, including using precise munitions, aerial observations and other intelligence gathering.

“The Hamas terror group systematically violates international law, while viciously using the cover of civilian shelters, civilian buildings and the civilian population as a human shield while carrying out terror activities,” the IDF says.