Unidentified gunmen abducted a field commander from Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza City, prompting a large-scale search operation by the group and raising questions over security conditions inside the enclave.
Sources cited by Asharq Al-Awsat said the commander, affiliated with the Qassam Brigades, was seized on Sunday evening in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood.
Fighters were deployed across Gaza in response, pursuing suspects believed to be travelling in two vehicles, with heavy gunfire reported during the operation.
A Hamas source told the outlet it was "likely that an Israeli special force, or members of an armed gang collaborating with Israel," was behind the abduction, though no independent confirmation has been provided.
The incident coincided with an attempted assassination of a Hamas-linked security figure elsewhere in Gaza, who was reportedly lightly wounded.
In recent weeks, the Gaza Strip has seen repeated infiltration attempts by armed gangs believed to be backed by Israel, at times leading to clashes with Hamas fighters.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot and killed 22-year-old Ramzi Abdul Hakim Mohammad al-Awawdeh during a raid in the town of Kharsa, near Dura, southwest of Hebron, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Local sources said Israeli forces opened fire on al-Awawdeh near a junction in the town, "leaving him to bleed" and "preventing medical teams from reaching him after confiscating the keys to ambulances". He later died of his wounds, and Israeli forces withheld his body.
In a separate incident, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces prevented its crews from reaching an injured person near the Anab checkpoint in the northern West Bank, following reports of gunfire targeting a vehicle.
Settler violence has also continued across the territory. Local sources reported that Israeli settlers set fire to two vehicles during an attack on the village of Shuyukh al-Arroub, north of Hebron, and "stole 25 sheep" while spray-painting racist slogans before residents confronted them, forcing their withdrawal.
Elsewhere, settlers bulldozed "large areas of land" in al-Lubban al-Sharqiya, south of Nablus, affecting around 2,000 dunams of land near residential areas. Israeli bulldozers also uprooted dozens of olive trees in Arraba, south of Jenin, in what residents say are repeated attacks on agricultural livelihoods.
Israeli authorities have also stepped up measures restricting movement across parts of the West Bank.
Hassan Mlihate, general supervisor of the al-Baidar human rights organisation, told The New Arab that Israeli forces had begun installing an iron gate near al-Safa school in Halhul, north of Hebron, "cutting off the road" linking the villages of Kharas, Nuba and Beit Ula.
He added that settlers had set up tents on land belonging to the town of Jaba, in the area between Jaba and Sanur southeast of Jenin, raising fears the site could be turned into a new settlement outpost.
Israeli forces also carried out raids across multiple areas of the West Bank overnight and into Monday, detaining several Palestinians, as part of what Palestinians describe as an ongoing campaign of incursions and arrests.
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities have continued to close Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron for the 31st consecutive day since the start of the war on Iran, preventing Palestinians from accessing the sites for prayer.