Native name هونر يونس Years active 2015 Ethnicity Arab | Nationality Palestinian Died June 2, 2015
Gaza City Name Yunis Hunnar | |
Cause of death Assassination by Hamas Police | ||
Yunis Hunnar was the leader of the Islamist militant group Army of the Islamic State, a group that carries out operations mainly against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Islamist militant activities and assassination
Hunnar's home in Gaza City was raided by Hamas Police on June 2, 2015, with Hamas later saying he had led the Army of the Islamic State group (also known as ISIS in Gaza.) Following his arrest, Yunis Hunnar was shot dead by the police forces. There have been conflicting reports on the cause and manner of his death. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (a non-profit humanitarian group):
'...[Hamas] security Services in the Gaza Strip killed Yunis Sa'id al-Hunnar while attempting to arrest him from his house in Shaikh Redwan neighbourhood in Gaza City...according to the al-Hunnar's wife, "at approximately 09:00 on Tuesday, 02 June 2015, a large number of armed persons in black, some of whom were masked, raided the house and opened fire. They then kept me in a room for about an hour, during which they searched the house and seized books and papers. When I went out of the room, I was surprised to see a pool of blood by the apartment's door. I then learnt that my husband was killed and they took his body"...'
The assassination of Yunis Hunnar came as part of a crackdown launched by Hamas on Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) supporters in Gaza, such as the Army of the Islamic State members. The operation started when the Salafist group Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem pledged allegiance to ISIL on February 11, 2014. The crackdown intensified when the Army of the Islamic State ISIL affiliate was proclaimed in April 2015.