The Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday the assassination of Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist Ahmed Aish Salame al-Hashash, who served as head of the terror group’s Rocket and Missile Unit in Rafah.
Hashash was responsible for firing rockets at Israeli communities from within the humanitarian safe zone set up by the IDF for Gaza civilians.
“The Israeli Air Force conducted an intelligence-based strike on the terrorist … who was responsible for the Islamic Jihad’s rocket attacks in the Rafah Brigade and was an important source of knowledge of rocket fire within the Islamic Jihad terror organization in Gaza,” the IDF said in a statement.
At the time of the strike, Salame al-Hashash was embedded and operating inside the humanitarian area in Khan Younis, the IDF said.
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence.”
Both Hamas and its ally, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, are Iranian proxies, and both routinely use Gaza civilians as human shields while waging war against Israelis.
“The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue to systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure to carry out terrorist activities and attacks on Israeli civilians,” the IDF said, adding that IDF troops will “continue to operate against the terrorist organizations in defense of the State of Israel.”
