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Israel has announced the capture of the head of Hamas’s internal security service in a ground raid in Gaza City on Tuesday.

Getting into it: According to the IDF, which issued a joint statement with the Shin Bet on Tuesday evening, special forces “entered a structure in the Gaza City area and apprehended the head of Hamas’ Internal Security in the Gaza Strip,” and that he is now being held in Israel and interrogated. The Israeli Air Force hit several targets during the raid “in order to remove threats to the forces.” The IDF reported no Israeli casualties.

The operation was blown mid-execution. Ismail al-Thawabta, who runs Hamas’s government media office, said “an Israeli special forces unit attempted to carry out a security operation in Gaza City, but the unit was exposed while carrying out the mission.” The airstrikes that followed were cover for the withdrawal.

In the Katiba area of western Gaza City, a neighborhood full of families who fled there from elsewhere, witnesses reported at least 12 missiles and roughly 10 explosions. Two vehicles were destroyed, and medics said at least three people were killed, including two children and a woman, with several more wounded. “A jeep stopped in the middle of the street and started firing indiscriminately left and right. It carried on firing at us like rain for more than 15 minutes,” said Wafika al-Helou, a displaced woman living in a tent nearby. “It was terrifying.”

Who actually did the raid is murky. Palestinian outlets said both an Israeli special forces unit and Palestinian militiamen backed by Israel moved into the neighborhood. Saudi outlet Al-Hadath reported that Israeli-backed militias tried to abduct someone near the Red Cross headquarters and that the strikes came after the operation was exposed. Israeli outlets have suggested the men on the ground were militia fighters and nobody else. The Jerusalem Post reported it has clear indications, backed by foreign reports, that anti-Hamas Gaza gangs ran the operation with IDF and Shin Bet support. IDF sources declined to knock the reports down. The official statement mentioned only Shin Bet “special forces.”

Israeli officials identified the captured man as Mu’in al-Arabid. Netanyahu called him “one of the most senior Hamas leaders,” and said he was “responsible for concealing and transporting our hostages, for sheltering senior Hamas figures, and for military build-up,” adding that he had recently worked to restore Hamas governance, deceive on demilitarization, and help carry out attacks. A Palestinian source in Gaza told the Post that the man ran internal security for Gaza City only, making him mid-level, and that Hamas is trying to downplay the whole thing while its internal security forces hunt the Israeli-backed militias.

Hamas condemned the raid as a “criminal operation” by “special forces of the occupation army,” calling it “a serious crime and a deliberate disregard for the lives of civilians.” Hamas also claimed that several members of the Israeli special forces unit were killed, which Israel denies.