Ministry of Interior and National Security:

A new crime committed by the Israeli occupation this morning by targeting the al-Katiba area west of Gaza City with a heavy barrage of airstrikes involving dozens of warplanes of various types. Under this heavy fire cover, an Israeli special force infiltrated using civilian vehicles, which led to the martyrdom of a number of citizens, including a woman and children, and the injury of a large number of others. In the face of this brutal crime, we affirm the following:

▪ We mourn to our people a group of martyrs who rose in this crime, and we wish a speedy recovery to the wounded and injured.

▪ The occupation abducted the officer in the Internal Security Service (Muin Muhammad al-Arabeed), after he was injured during his clash with the attacking Israeli force, and his wife was martyred and a number of his children were injured.

▪ We affirm that Officer al-Arabeed was carrying out his usual duties as part of fulfilling the duty of serving our people and maintaining security and civil peace within the Gaza Strip.

▪ The occupation's targeting of the security and police system in the Gaza Strip has not stopped for three years, during which the occupation has assassinated hundreds of leaders, officers and cadres of the Ministry of Interior and National Security and the police force, as part of its effort to break and absent this system, and spread chaos, without achieving its goals despite these heinous crimes.

▪ The occupation's focus on targeting the police and internal security services, which escalated since the ceasefire agreement in October of last year, came because of their direct role in establishing security, protecting civil peace and supporting citizens in light of the catastrophic conditions our people are living through in the Gaza Strip.

▪ We reassure our people that we will continue to carry out our duty مهما كانت التحديات والتضحيات، وهذا ما أقسمنا عليه وما عهده شعبنا منا على مدار 20 عاماً قدمنا خلالها آلاف الشهداء من أبناء أجهزة وزارة الداخلية.

▪ We warn against being drawn behind the narratives promoted by the occupation about the incident, and the false news disseminated by the occupation's intelligence agencies.

▪ We call on the mediators and guarantors of the ceasefire agreement to fulfill their responsibilities to pressure the occupation to stop its daily crimes against our people, and its ongoing targeting of the Ministry of Interior's agencies.

▪ We salute our steadfast people, who constitute the front-line barrier against the occupation's attempts to spread chaos and destabilize social security.