Mohammed Jaber Abdo, a senior Hamas commander, was among four Palestinian fighters killed in a violent confrontation with Israeli forces near Ramallah on Monday night, according to a report by Al Jazeera.
The incident has heightened tensions in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli military operations have been ongoing in recent days.
Abdo was identified by Hamas as part of a group of four fighters who were killed in the village of Kafr Nima during a raid by Israeli troops.
The group was searching for a Palestinian man accused of carrying out an arson attack in an Israeli outpost.
In a statement, Hamas named Abdo as one of the four fighters killed in the incident, along with three other operatives.
The group claimed that the Israeli forces opened fire on the vehicle the four were in, resulting in the deaths of all four men and the wounding of eight others.
The Israeli military has not yet commented on the incident, but it is believed that the forces were acting in self-defence after the suspects attempted to ram their vehicle into the officers.
The conflicting accounts of the events have yet to be independently verified, leaving the situation in the West Bank tense and uncertain.
Abdo, a long-time prisoner in Israeli jails for two decades, was a senior commander in Hamas and had been involved in several high-profile operations against Israeli targets. His death is seen as a significant blow to the group, which has been engaged in a long-standing conflict with Israel.
