Netanyahu’s admission came as part of responses he provided to the Israeli State Comptroller regarding his government’s policies towards Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to a report by the Hebrew-language “Israel 24” channel correspondent, Yinon Yatach.
In a post on the X platform on Thursday, Yatach said that Netanyahu revealed in his responses to his critics that Israel was the one that carried out the assassination of Faqha, a prominent leader in the military wing of Hamas.
He added that the assassination was carried out by the Palestinian Ashraf Abu Laila, “who was later executed by Hamas,” according to the same source.
Mazen Faqha was assassinated on March 24, 2017, in front of his home in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, west of Gaza City, by gunfire. The Palestinian Ministry of Interior in Gaza announced at the time that the assassination was carried out by collaborators with Israel, but Tel Aviv did not claim responsibility for his assassination at that time.
Faqha is considered one of the leaders of the "Al-Qassam Brigades" in the occupied West Bank, and he was released as part of a prisoner exchange deal in 2011 before being deported to the Gaza Strip.
