Israel Kills Hamas Militant Previously Jailed for West Bank Lynchings, Reports Reuters

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO – Israeli forces have killed Abdel-Aziz Salha, a Hamas militant from the West Bank, who was previously sentenced to life imprisonment for participating in the lynching of two Israeli reservists in Ramallah in 2000. After serving time, he was deported to Gaza as part of a prisoner exchange. According to Hamas media and medical sources, Salha was targeted in an Israeli airstrike on a tent within Al-Aklouk School, a shelter for displaced Palestinians, in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza earlier on Thursday.

At this time, there has been no official statement from Israeli authorities regarding Salha’s death or whether he was intentionally targeted.

The 2000 incident in Ramallah involved the reservists being captured at a Palestinian checkpoint, taken to a police station, and brutally killed by a mob. This occurred after the funeral of a 17-year-old Palestinian who had been shot by Israeli forces, following a span of two weeks marked by multiple deaths of Palestinians throughout the West Bank.

Salha was detained by Israeli forces in 2001 and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. He was released in an October 2011 swap involving over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held captive in Gaza for five years.

In a separate development on Thursday, the Israeli military announced it had killed three senior Hamas officials in an airstrike that targeted them three months ago. The individuals identified were Rawhi Mushtaha, a close associate of Hamas Gaza chief Yehya Al-Sinwar; Sameh Al-Saraj, a senior security officer; and Sami Odeh, who commanded Hamas’ general security service. The Israeli military described Mushtaha as heavily involved in military decisions and holding various governance and finance roles within Hamas.

There was no immediate response from Hamas regarding these claims.

Additionally, earlier on Thursday, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City resulted in the deaths of five Palestinians, while another attack in Nuseirat killed one person and injured several others, according to medical reports. Palestinian health officials indicated that Israeli airstrikes had killed at least 12 people throughout the Gaza Strip on Thursday alone, following a report from the Gaza health ministry stating that previous strikes had resulted in 99 deaths within the prior 24 hours.

Palestinians in Gaza are approaching the first anniversary of the ongoing conflict, with little optimism for a resolution as Israel initiates a separate ground offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas.

Hezbollah has been responding to the situation by launching rockets into Israeli territory in solidarity with Hamas, amidst a war that erupted after Hamas-led militants attacked Israeli towns on October 7 of the previous year. Israel reported that this initial attack resulted in 1,200 deaths and over 250 hostages, setting off a conflict that has wreaked havoc on Gaza, displacing the majority of its 2.3 million inhabitants and resulting in the loss of over 41,700 lives, according to health authorities in Gaza.