Hamas official shot dead by unknown gunmen in Gaza

Senior Hamas official Mazen Faqha who had been freed from Israeli detention in a 2011 prisoner swap was shot and killed by unknown gunmen in Gaza on Friday.

MENA

1 min read

The New Arab

25 March, 2017

Palestine - Hamas official killed

A senior Hamas official was shot dead in the Gaza Strip by unknown gunmen on Friday, the interior ministry in the Palestinian enclave said.

Mazen Faqha was killed when gunmen opened fire on him in the Tell al-Hama neighbourhood in the Hamas-ruled strip, Iyad al-Bozum, an interior ministry spokesman said.

"An investigation has been launched," he said, giving no further details.

The area has been sealed off by police, The New Arab’s correspondent said, adding that police have erected several checkpoints across the Palestinian enclave.

A source close to Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades, told The New Arab Faqha's murder appears similar to the assassination of the Tunisian drone expert Mohamed Zaouari, which the group pinned on Israel.

Faqha was a senior Hamas official in the Israeli-occupied West Bank but after his release in 2011, Israel transferred him to Gaza.

He was freed along with more than 1,000 other Palestinians in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier Hamas had detained for five years.