The Israeli occupation army assassinated Iyad Al-Shinbari, the head of intelligence for the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday evening. A missile launched from a reconnaissance drone struck his vehicle as it traveled west of Gaza City.
The strike claimed four lives, including Al-Shinbari and his son, Salah, who was accompanying him, alongside a member of the Internal Security Service. Additional casualties were reported at the scene near the Hamas-run Internal Security Service headquarters, a facility previously decimated during the genocidal war.
A Hamas security source told Al Manassa that Al-Shinbari was among the Qassam Brigades’ most prominent leaders in the northern Gaza Strip. Serving as head of intelligence for the Northern Brigade, he had recently been tasked with overseeing the restructuring of several security agencies following the ceasefire agreement reached last October.
An eyewitness told Al Manassa that the strike hit moments after the vehicle began moving through an area crowded with pedestrians and displaced people. The resulting casualties were rushed to Al-Shifa Hospital.
A medical source at the hospital confirmed to Al Manassa that four people were killed and three others were treated for shrapnel wounds in the emergency department. Among the dead was a child, Khaled Abu Nahl, who was also inside the targeted vehicle and the son of a security official, according to the security source.
This operation comes amid escalating violations of the ceasefire, as the Israeli occupation army has intensified its targeting of Hamas leaders and personnel in recent weeks. The campaign has targeted military and security cadres as well as members of the civil police under the pretext of neutralizing potential threats, at a time when the resistance movement has been rebuilding its structures and rehabilitating personnel to maintain security within the Gaza Strip.
In a separate incident on Wednesday morning, Gaza Medical Services paramedic Ibrahim Saqr was killed by a reconnaissance drone missile while walking to work in the Al-Tawam neighborhood, northwest of Gaza City.
An eyewitness told Al Manassa that after Saqr was critically injured, “a quadcopter drone hovered at a very low altitude for several minutes, preventing people from providing him with urgent medical assistance.” The Israeli drone only withdrew after more than 10 minutes, finally allowing an ambulance to transport him to Al-Shifa Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to an ambulance source speaking to Al Manassa.
Despite the ceasefire agreement signed between Hamas and Israel nearly seven months ago, the occupation army has not ceased its missile attacks on civilians in homes and refugee camps. These attacks have left 823 people dead and 2,300 injured during this period alone, according to a statement released today by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
According to the ministry’s daily statistical report, 72,599 Palestinians have been killed and more than 172,000 others have been injured since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.
