Israel vows response to Hamas ‘violations’ after officer injured in Gaza blast

Prime Minister’s Office warns military will take action; IDF says top Hamas money man killed alongside terror chief in strike earlier this month

Israel vowed on Wednesday to respond to an incident in southern Gaza’s Rafah in which a bomb exploded against an Israeli armored personnel carrier, lightly injuring an IDF officer.

The officer, who serves in the Golani Brigade, was taken to a hospital, and his family was notified, the army said.

“The Hamas terror organization continues to violate the ceasefire and President Trump’s 20-point plan,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement published in English.

“Their ongoing and continuing public refusal to disarm is an ongoing flagrant violation, and again today their violent intentions and violations were confirmed by their detonation of an IED that wounded an IDF officer,” the PMO continued.

It was unclear whether the bomb was recently planted in the area by terror operatives or it was an old explosive device from before the ceasefire.

The incident came days before Netanyahu is set to fly to Florida to meet with US President Donald Trump to discuss the next steps in the fragile Gaza ceasefire.

“Hamas must be held to the agreement that they signed on [sic], which includes removal from governance, demilitarization, and de-radicalization,” concluded the PMO, adding that “Israel will respond accordingly.”

The Israel Defense Forces said the Namer APC that was hit was involved in efforts to clear Rafah’s Jenina neighborhood — located on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line — of Hamas infrastructure.

Dozens of Hamas operatives are believed to have been holed up in tunnels in Jenina, though the army has reported killing or capturing many of them.

Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of violating the US-brokered ceasefire plan that halted two years of war triggered by the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

The first phase of the truce stopped the fighting, but occasional deadly clashes have continued, mostly along the so-called Yellow Line that divides Hamas and Israeli-held territory.

Washington is keen to move on to the second phase, which deals with the governance of post-war Gaza and the demilitarization of Hamas. The US is struggling to find international partners to take on those tasks, while Hamas has said it will not give up its weapons.

Meanwhile, the IDF said Wednesday that an airstrike targeting top Hamas commander Raed Saad in Gaza earlier this month also killed a prominent money man in the terror group.

Abd al-Hayy Zaqout, who served in Hamas’s finance division, was in the car with Saad and was killed alongside him on December 13, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee said.

“Over the past year, Zaqout was responsible for raising tens of millions of dollars and transferring them to Hamas’s military wing, with the aim of continuing the fight against Israel,” Adraee added.

The military did not say how Zaqout was able to bring the money into Gaza, where Hamas retains control of just under half of the enclave on territory that is surrounded on all sides by Israeli-held areas, according to the terms of the ceasefire.

The strike on Saad and Zaqout came in response to the injury of two troops by an explosive in southern Gaza several hours prior.

The Ynet outlet reported, without citing sources, that Hamas has been able to raise tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of shekels every day from the tax it imposes on humanitarian aid entering areas under its control. The method, which Hamas used in the past to finance its activities, is thriving on the increased humanitarian aid that Israel has been allowing into Gaza since the ceasefire started in October.

At the beginning of the month, the IDF and Shin Bet security services said they had identified three Hamas members who are said to be involved in smuggling money to the terror group from Turkey, under the directives of Iran.

According to the military and Shin Bet, Hamas operates a network of money changers made up of Gazans residing in Turkey, “exploiting the country’s financial infrastructure for terror purposes.”

“The Gazan money changers work in full cooperation with the Iranian regime and transfer hundreds of millions of dollars directly to the Hamas terror organization and its leadership,” Adraee said in a post on X at the time.

He said that the money changers “run extensive economic activity in the heart of Turkey, including receiving Iranian funds, storing them, and transferring them to Hamas.”

Adraee named three Palestinians from Gaza who are part of the network based in Turkey: Tamer Hassan, a senior official in Hamas’s finance ministry, who works directly under political bureau member Khalil al-Hayya, and money changers Khalil Farauna and Farid Abu Dayr.

“The Hamas terror organization, with support and encouragement from the Iranian regime, after having caused the destruction of the Gaza Strip, continues to pursue terror schemes against Israel and is attempting to rebuild its capabilities, including outside the territory of the Strip,” Adraee said.

Throughout the war, Israel reportedly worked to disrupt the Hamas financial apparatus, killing top actors and targeting the terror group’s efforts to pay its fighters and civil service workers.