Israel says it killed a Hamas sniper in Gaza, his brother calls it 'a lie'

The Israeli army claimed Sunday to have killed a sniper from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, while his brother, director of the territory's main hospital, called it a "lie."

Mohammed Abou Salmiya, director of al-Shifa Hospital — one of the few still operational in the Palestinian territory —told AFP on Saturday that his brother and sister-in-law had been killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza City.

The Israeli army, which had not responded immediately, said Sunday it had killed Majed Abou Salmiya, whom it described as a Hamas sniper.

The army said in a statement: "The army struck and eliminated Majed Abou Salmiya, a terrorist in Hamas’s military wing," adding that he "operated as a sniper for Hamas and was preparing to carry out an imminent terror attack against Israel Defense Forces troops in the Gaza City area."

Salmiya rejected these accusations, saying his brother suffered from serious illnesses and was visually impaired.

"What the occupation claims about my brother is a lie, a slander, and an unacceptable justification for directly targeting civilians with missile strikes," he told AFP.

"They claim he was a sniper? That is a complete fabrication," he insisted, emphasizing that his brother and his family had been displaced several times in Gaza since the war began in October 2023.

Salmiya was in the emergency room at Al-Shifa Hospital on Saturday morning when the bodies of his brother and sister-in-law were brought in. "I was shocked and devastated to see the bodies of my brother and his wife," he told AFP.

The Israeli army launched a large-scale aerial and ground offensive on Gaza City on Tuesday, aiming to wipe out Hamas.

On Sunday, at least six people were killed in Israeli strikes since dawn, according to Gaza's Civil Defense, which had reported on Saturday nearly 90 deaths across the territory, most of them in Gaza City.