An Israeli airstrike on Sunday took the life of a high-ranking Hamas security official and a fellow officer as they rode together through the central Gaza area of Deir Al-Balah, according to medics and police officials on the ground.
The strike claimed the lives of Colonel Wael El-Ledawi, who served as head of the Hamas internal security service in central Gaza, and Major Ramez Abu Zraiq, according to medics and the Hamas-run interior ministry.
The Israeli military confirmed it had conducted a strike targeting a Hamas militant but offered no additional information.
Over the past several months, Israel has killed dozens of members of the Hamas-led police force — including high-ranking figures — accusing many of them of being active members of Hamas’s armed wing who posed direct threats to Israel and its military personnel operating inside Gaza.
Hamas, for its part, contends that Israeli attacks on its police force and facilities are designed to create disorder and lawlessness throughout the territory, and that such strikes violate the ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States between Israel and Hamas last October.
Sunday’s killings push the total Palestinian death toll from Israeli strikes since the ceasefire went into effect to more than 1,190, the majority of whom are civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Hamas typically does not publicize its own casualties.
While the ceasefire brought an end to large-scale combat operations, Israeli strikes have continued on an almost daily basis. During the same period, four Israeli soldiers have lost their lives to militant attacks within Gaza.
Israel now effectively controls an estimated 64% of the small coastal territory, which has been devastated by nearly two years of military operations following Hamas’s 2023 attack on southern Israel. Almost all of Gaza’s roughly 2 million residents are now crowded into a narrow coastal strip, living in makeshift tents or damaged structures under Hamas governance and facing increasingly desperate conditions.
