Unknown gunmen assassinated on Friday evening one  al-Qassam Brigades commander and ex-detainee in Israeli jails  Mazen al-Fuqaha in Tel al-Hawa area in southern Gaza City.

According Hamas Interior Ministry in Gaza spokesman Iyad al-Bezem, policemen found the body of Fuqaha with four bullets in his head. An inquiry has been opened into the incident, he pointed out.

A statement by the Interior Ministry in Gaza said Mazen Fuqaha was gunned down in the southern Gaza City neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa. The gunmen were equipped with silencers, the statement said.

Mazen Fuqaha, from Tubas city in the West Bank, is a member of al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement.

He is an ex-detainee who was released in swap deal in 2011 between Hamas and Israel on condition he would be deported to Gaza.

Israeli occupation forces arrested Fuqaha over his responsibility for the Safad attack which led to the death of nine Israelis and it was carried out in revenge for the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader in Gaza Sheikh Salah Shehadeh.

Fuqha was sentenced to life in prison and an additional 50 years for planning a suicide bombing in Meron Crossing in 2002, where nine Israelis were killed. But in 2011 he was released from prison as part of a prisoner exchange deal to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Political bureau member of Hamas Ezzet Resheq described the assassination on his Twitter account as “cowardly”.

Source :PNN