A video released Thursday by Hamas of the Wednesday killing and attempted abduction of a soldier in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis appeared to contradict the Israeli army’s version of events.
The Israel Defense Forces said earlier this week that several Hamas operatives had emerged from a tunnel and attacked Israeli troops. During the attack, the gunmen attempted to abduct Master Sgt. (res.) Abraham Azulay, who had been operating an excavator.
Azulay “struggled with them and the terrorists shot and killed him,” said the military, adding that other Israeli forces guarding the area opened fire on the operatives, thwarting an attempt to abduct his body.
The video published by Hamas did not show such a struggle with the soldier, and also showed that, rather than emerging from a tunnel and immediately attacking, the terror operatives had surveilled the troops overground for at least a few minutes.
The clip shows a squad of terror operatives hiding in a damaged building and observing Israeli forces carrying out demolition work.
The squad then sneaks up to the troops, as one launches an RPG at the excavator Azulay was operating. The soldier is seen jumping out of the unarmored construction vehicle while coming under fire from the operatives from over a dozen meters away. The video then shows two operatives reaching the excavator where Azulay’s body lies on the ground.
The operatives are then seen taking Azulay’s weapons, shooting him again, while gunfire is heard in the background, possibly from the Israeli forces returning fire.
Hamas said that its gunmen had attempted to capture the soldier, but that the “field conditions did not allow for it, so they killed him and seized his weapon.”
The Hamas video is edited, and it is unclear if any of the operatives were hit by the Israeli gunfire.
The Times of Israel has chosen not to publish the video because of its graphic content.
The IDF said it is investigating the incident further, including the deployment of troops who were supposed to be guarding the demolition work.
Separately, the military said Friday that an officer was killed the previous day from an apparent accidental explosion in southern Gaza, and that two troops were injured by anti-tank fire in the Strip’s north.
Meanwhile, the IDF and Shin Bet announced on Friday that the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Shejaiya sector, Fadl Abu al-Ata, who had invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, was killed in a recent strike in the Gaza Strip.
Abu al-Ata, according to the IDF and Shin Bet, previously served as the deputy commander of the Shejaiya sector, and during the war was promoted to head the Islamic Jihad regional unit.
“Abu al-Ata was one of the key coordinators between terror organizations in the Shejaiya sector, and he directed numerous terror attacks against IDF troops,” the military said.
A separate strike killed Hamed Kamel Abd al-Aziz Iyad, a member of the PIJ’s Turukman Battalion, who the IDF said was “responsible for planning and executing terror and explosive attacks against IDF troops.”
At least 798 people have been killed while trying to receive food aid in Gaza since the end of May, the United Nations Human Rights Office said on Friday.
Of the total number of people killed while receiving food assistance since May 27, 615 were in the vicinity of sites operated by the controversial US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) told reporters.
The other 183 were killed on the routes of aid convoys, the spokesperson said.
The controversial GHF has faced harsh criticism from the UN and other aid organizations, which charge that it failed to meet the needs of Gaza’s population.
Gazans have reported near-daily incidents in which groups trying to reach GHF facilities are shot at by Israeli forces, leading to mass casualties.
Israel has accused Hamas of attacking Gazan aid seekers and falsifying death tolls, but has also acknowledged that “several” Palestinian civilians have been killed by the IDF near GHF aid distribution sites. The IDF said troops have been issued new instructions following what it called “lessons learned.”
The war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251. Fifty hostages remain in Hamas captivity, including the bodies of 28 confirmed dead by the IDF.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.