The Israeli army and the Israeli Security Agency have said in a joint statement that Sunday night’s attack on Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood killed Muhammad al-Ajlah, who they claimed was a Hamas commander, Al Jazeera reports.

According to the agencies, al-Ajlah had succeeded Haitham Rizq Abd al-Karim Sheikh Khalil as commander of Hamas’s Shujayea battalion after the latter was killed last week.

“Khalil was eliminated last week … He was responsible for arming the battalion’s terrorists with weapons used to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and [Israeli] troops,” the statement on Telegram in English said.

“Al-Ajlah was the fifth commander of Hamas’ Shujaeya battalion to be eliminated since the beginning of the war, and the third since the start of the renewed operations in Gaza,” it claimed.