Israel police chief killed in al-Khalil

Israel has revealed the assassination of chief of technological intelligence department of the regime’s investigative police in the West Bank with no clue about the assailant’s identity.

Israeli media outlets on Wednesday identified the senior police intelligence officer as Chief Superintendent Baruch Mizrahi and described his ambush killing operation in the occupied Palestinian city of al-Khalil as “having a good quality.”

According to Israeli press reports, Mizrahi served with the Tel Aviv regime’s army intelligence for 25 years, working in the eavesdropping unit at the Palestinian borders with Lebanon and Syria.

Following the shooting of the intelligence official, Israeli military troops surrounded the Palestinian village of Idna near the shooting incident and cordoned it off. They also arrested a Palestinian suspect, identified as Mahmoud Ahmed Nimer but later released him.

Meanwhile, Israeli military forces, the regime’s notorious domestic intelligence service Shin Bet, as well as Tel Aviv’s military intelligence officers are struggling to find those behind the assassination, press reports add.

This is while witnesses cited by Israeli media have described the shooter as a single gunman armed with an AK-47 rifle who “stood beside the road and opened fire at passing Israeli vehicles.”

Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud al-Habash expressed regret over the shooting, but Hamas and Islamic Jihad authorities described it as “a natural reaction to Israel’s crimes against Palestinian civilians, the attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque and the abuse of prisoners.”

Further reacting to the incident, Israeli military commander Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said recent developments in the West Bank do not serve the Israeli security interests.

In recent weeks, Israeli military and police forces, as well as settlers, have intensified attacks and harassment of Palestinians in the West Bank, especially in and around the al-Aqsa Mosque in al-Quds (Jerusalem).