Among those killed was Yassin Rabia, the head of the unit. Rabia was killed alongside another top member of the headquarters in a strike in Rafah earlier this week. The strike was also said to have killed dozens of Palestinian civilians in a blaze caused by a secondary explosion.
An IDF probe into the strike found that a hidden store of weapons may have been the actual cause of the deadly blaze, and that an airstrike that targeted an adjacent area had used small munitions that would not ignite such a fire on their own.
Another nine members of the unit have been detained by troops in the Gaza Strip, the Shin Bet added.
The agency said the unit is primarily made up of Hamas members who were exiled to Gaza in a 2011 deal with Hamas, in which Israel released 1,027 Palestinian terror convicts in exchange for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Members of the unit make contact with West Bank Palestinians in order to recruit them to carry out terror attacks in the territory and in Israel proper, the Shin Bet said. READ MORE
