From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Israel names four Hamas commanders killed in Gaza strikes
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
The Shin Bet security service identifies four top Hamas commanders who were killed in its joint operation with the Israel Defense Forces earlier today, along with two others who were killed in an earlier strike on a Hamas base.
Bassem Issa, the commander of Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade; Jamaa Tahla, the head of its cyber command and responsible for improving the accuracy of the group’s rockets; Jamal Zabeda, the head of research and special projects in its munitions productions department; and Hazzem Hatib, Hamas’s chief engineer in its munitions department were all killed in the strikes, the Shin Bet says.
According to the security service, Sami Radwan, who leads Hamas’s technical intelligence department, and Walid Smali, who was in charge of industrial equipment for the group’s weapons production department, were also killed in earlier attacks on Hamas sites.
“In addition, 10 other operatives from Hamas’s weapons production and research and development department were killed,” the Shin Bet says.
The Times of Israel Community.