The Shin Bet reported that Israeli troops detained Mahmoud Qawasmeh, a senior Hamas operative involved in planning the 2014 kidnapping and murder of Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaer, and Naftali Fraenkel, at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.
Qawasmeh was apprehended earlier today by IDF soldiers at the medical center and taken to Israel for further interrogation. He was described as “one of the planners and financiers of the infrastructure that carried out the kidnapping and murder attack” in 2014.
Qawasmeh had been exiled to the Gaza Strip as part of the 2011 Shalit deal, where he continued to facilitate attacks in Judea & Samaria, including shooting incidents by Hamas cells in recent years.
