Two children killed in Gaza raid during strained ceasefire
Israeli special forces descended on Gaza City’s Al-Katiba neighborhood on Tuesday under cover of air-force fire, capturing a senior Hamas official in a daylight operation backed by drones, according to Israeli and Hamas officials.
The operatives, from Israel’s Shin Bet security service, nabbed Moein Al-Arabid near his home and loaded him wounded but alive into a van that transported him across the border into Israel for interrogation, the officials said.
Netanyahu said Al-Arabid headed Hamas’s internal security service and was helping the group re-establish its dominance after three years of war sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. “My directive is clear: the State of Israel will continue to pursue all Hamas leaders and everyone who took part in the October 7 massacre,” Netanyahu said late Tuesday.
The operation occurred while a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was already under strain. Trump said last month that Israel needs to dial back attacks to give his plan a chance, though his envoys and the Board of Peace — a group Trump set up to oversee the ceasefire — have also said Israel can defend itself and attack if Hamas tries to rearm. Netanyahu has rejected a Board of Peace plan to disarm the militant group.
Gaza health authorities said at least two children were killed and six people were injured in the operation. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Interior Ministry said Israel killed Al-Arabid’s wife and injured several of his children. Israel’s military said none of its forces were injured during the mission deep inside Hamas-controlled territory.
Witnesses described a chaotic episode that lasted under 30 minutes. Gaza City residents first heard drones overhead, then a rapid series of explosions and thick clouds of smoke.
Lina Abu Hein, 24 years old and five months pregnant, said she lives upstairs from where the abduction took place and ran down to her neighbor’s apartment when she heard a burst of gunfire. “I saw thick smoke and smelled a strong odor of gunpowder,” she said. “Everyone ran and took cover.”
Security analysts said Al-Arabid’s capture is a major blow for Hamas, whose leadership in Gaza has been successively struck down by Israel, making it harder for the group to function and fill senior roles. Michael Milshtein, a former senior Israeli military intelligence officer, said Al-Arabid as chief of internal security would have detailed knowledge about protection protocols for Hamas leaders and about who the group suspected of being enemy informants.
“I think they would prefer that he be killed by Israel, because Israel will get the secrets out of him,” Milshtein said. “And this is a man who knows a lot of secrets.”
Nearly a year after the ceasefire under Trump’s Gaza peace plan took effect, Israel continues to carry out near-daily strikes in the enclave, often targeting militants who participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Gaza health authorities say more than 1,300 people have been killed since the ceasefire, without saying how many were combatants.