Israel says killed Hamas's internal security chief in Gaza strike

Israel resumed its air campaign early Tuesday with a wave of deadly strikes, shattering a relative calm that had pervaded in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory since a ceasefire took hold on January 19.

Israeli forces "in recent days... struck and eliminated the terrorist Rashid Jahjouh, head of the Hamas General Security Service, who assumed his position after the elimination of his predecessor, Sami Oudeh, in July 2024," military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.

The internal security agency in Hamas-run Gaza is tasked with "combating espionage and providing information to the political leadership to support planning and decision-making", according to the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance.

Adraee said that in a separate raid, Israeli forces had killed Ismail Abdel-Al who "was considered a prominent member of the Islamic Jihad's arms smuggling network", referring to a Palestinian militant group that has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza.

The territory's civil defence agency said Thursday that 504 people had been killed so far in the renewed Israeli assault, including more than 190 children.

Hamas on Tuesday named the head of its government in the Gaza Strip, Essam al-Dalis, and interior ministry head Mahmud Abu Watfa, among a list of officials it said were killed in a wave of Israeli strikes this week.

The Israeli military confirmed it had killed Dalis, a member of Hamas's political bureau who became the head of its administration in Gaza in June 2021.