The Israeli military abducted an internal security apparatus officer, Muain al-Arabid, during a raid on Gaza City, the Palestinian Interior Ministry announced Tuesday. Arabid was carrying out his regular duties when the Israeli special forces unit infiltrated the Katiba area, west of Gaza City, according to the statement, which said he was injured during a clash with the unit. The attack killed Arabid’s wife and injured several of his children, with Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam reporting Wednesday that the clash killed four people in total, including two children. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military claimed that Arabid is a “senior Hamas figure” who had been pushing to restore Hamas’ control over northern Gaza, Hamas official Mohamed Madhoun denied the allegations, saying that Arabid worked within Gaza’s governmental security apparatus. The abduction is another instance of Israel’s continued targeting of police and other service institutions in Gaza, said Madhoun. An eyewitness in the Katiba area at the time of Tuesday’s attack recounted to Mada Masr that a closed white truck arrived at the scene before several armed individuals disembarked from the vehicle to storm a house, barricading themselves inside before opening heavy fire on people outside. Israeli aircraft simultaneously carried out approximately ten strikes in under five minutes, the witness added. Another eyewitness described the infiltrating force withdrawing in a jeep amid the bombardment shortly before an airstrike targeted the white truck the force had used to reach the area. The Interior Ministry also said the Israeli unit entered the area in civilian vehicles before exploiting a heavy airstrike campaign to escape. A Gaza-based outlet affiliated with Hamas’ security, Al-Hares, quoted an unnamed security source saying that the “resistance thwarted an offensive that targeted a key leadership figure while the Occupation succeeded in kidnapping a security official who was present at the scene of the operation.” The same source said that “resistance forces detected the Israeli unit, inflicted casualties and seized some of its weapons and equipment,” adding that it had also apprehended and arrested three people who were providing the Israeli force assistance with intelligence gathering. The director of Gaza’s Government Media Office also said that several members of the Israeli special forces were killed after their presence was discovered, prompting the deployment of more than 10 aircraft to carry out the series of heavy strikes. The Israeli military, however, denied that any of the special forces personnel had been wounded. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said the operation had resulted in the capture of Hamas’ internal security service head near his home in central Gaza City, alleging that Arabid had been involved in concealing and transferring Israeli hostages and in efforts to restore Hamas’ capabilities. The Occupation military also claimed Arabid had recently been working to promote attacks against Israeli troops operating near the Yellow Line. Hamas official Mohamed al-Madhoun told Mada Masr that Arabid had no role in transferring Israeli prisoners and that he is part of the government security apparatus and does not work in Hamas’s military wing Arabid’s duties included protecting the population in Gaza and maintaining internal security against thieves, criminal gangs and agents, said Madhoun. The ministry said in its statement that Arabid had been “undertaking his normal responsibilities, part of doing his duty in the service of our people and preserving the civil peace in the Gaza Strip,” linking the operation to what it described as the occupation’s objective of “shattering and dismantling the security apparatus and spreading chaos” — a goal it stated has persisted since the aggression began over three years ago and has intensified since the ceasefire agreement reached in October of last year. According to earlier data from the ministry, Israel has killed 61 police officers since the ceasefire. The most recent casualties included eight Palestinian police officers — among them the governorate’s police chief, Brigadier General Ayman Jandiya — killed in the middle of last month during a strike on the municipal police headquarters in the Gaza Governorate. Jandiya had assumed his post only two weeks prior, succeeding the previous police chief who was killed earlier that same month. Madhoun attributed the Israeli force’s capacity to carry out the raid to the strip’s overcrowding, displacement and widespread disorder, as well as the intelligence Israel accumulated during the war. He downplayed the broader security and intelligence significance of Tuesday’s operation, saying the more important development was that the Israeli unit had been detected and engaged. Israel’s public presentation of the operation comes against the backdrop of domestic election campaigning, said Madhoun, who said that with Netanyahu’s popularity declining, he is seeking additional political gains. But Madhoun described the operation as a calculated one that does not break with America’s position on the situation, and does not aim for a broader escalation. Netanyahu does not have free rein as he did before October 2025, said Madhoun, and there are restrictions on his space under the Board of Peace initiative under America that mean he cannot return to full-scale operations. Following the raid, Hamas announced that its leaders had contacted mediators and Nikolay Mladenov, the high representative for the US-backed Board of Peace Council, to condemn the operation. The group called on mediators and guarantors of the ceasefire to pressure Israel to halt what it described as “criminal operations and escalating violations,” and to compel it to respect the ceasefire agreement and fulfill its obligations. It also urged the issuance of a clear, strong statement condemning the attack and warning of the consequences should it continue. Madhoun said the abduction of a security official such as Arabid would not disrupt Hamas’s negotiating position. He argued that the movement’s institutions had continued to function despite the killing of numerous political, security and organizational figures during the war, including figures holding positions senior to Arabid’s. Madhoun affirmed that Hamas would still remain in negotiations, since the movement seeks to “strip the occupier of pretexts,” leaving it with no means to evade the fulfillment of its obligations and also called on the mediators who helped broker the ceasefire with the US administration to exert meaningful pressure on Netanyahu to uphold the agreement. He said Hamas regularly reports Israeli violations to the mediators, including killings, attempted arrests, the blockade, starvation tactics and transgressions involving the expansion of the yellow line, underscoring the movement’s policy of keeping mediators constantly apprised to uphold the agreement, compelling them to shoulder their responsibilities as deal guarantors.The post Israeli military abducts Gaza City Interior Ministry official in raid first appeared on Mada Masr.
