Hamas bomb expert killed in ‘accidental explosion’

Abdul Rahim Abbas was killed in a work accident in the Gaza Strip.

By: Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Gazan Ministry of Interior announced Wednesday that Hamas commander Abdel Rahim Abbas was killed in an “accidental explosion” in the bomb disposal unit’s headquarters.

It said the blast was caused by “the ignition of explosives during inspection,” in the Passports Building at the Department of Explosives Engineering west of Gaza City and that the ensuing fire was put out by police and civil defense units that arrived on the scene.

The Gazan Ministry of Health added that two other people were treated at the Al-Shifa hospital for minor injuries due to the accident.

The Izz al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades put out a statement praising the 42-year-old lieutenant colonel as a “martyr” who had a life of “a great and honorable jihad.” The terrorist group lauded Abbas as a diligent field commander who trained Hamas security forces well and saw the “fruit” of his labor in the “digging of tunnels of pride and dignity to the homeland,” referring to the terror tunnels Hamas digs into Israel for the purposes of committing terror attacks in Jewish communities.

One such was infamously used in an attack during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, when Hamas fighters made off with the body of IDF Lt. Hadar Goldin, which it has held onto it ever since as a bargaining chip.

The IDF has successfully located and destroyed numerous such tunnels in the years following Protective Edge.