The president of a Palestinian university accused of Hamas ties has died in an Israeli airstrike.

Professor Muhammad Eid Shabeer, President of the Islamic University in Gaza, was killed in a strike at his home, the Arabic-language Masr Times reported.

Palestinian academic killed

There were no details about the strike - however, Israel took responsibility last month for the bombing of the university's campus, alleging the school was training Hamas engineers.

The IDF called the university "an important center of political and military power” for Hamas and a “training institution for the development and production of weapons.”

A religious scholar at the school, Saleh al-Raqa, published an article extolling Hamas in the aftermath of the group's brutal October 7 attack in which fighters slaughtered 1,400 Israelis.

“O Allah, grant victory to the fighters in Palestine, guide their strikes to the throats of Jews, make their legs steady and let them stab a knife through the hearts [of the Jews],” al-Raqab wrote. “Enable them to kill the soldiers of the Jews, destroy the weapons of the Jews, and capture Jewish soldiers. O Allah, destroy the Jews completely. Paralyze their limbs and freeze the blood in their veins.”

In the United States, many progressive college students and professors have expressed sympathy for Hamas. A professor at Emory University was fired for a social media post glorifying the Hamas "resistance fighters" who used hang gliders in the October 7 attack.

Biden distances himself

Hamas rules the densely populated Gaza Strip, but the group has long accused Israel of waging a brutal "occupation."

Since October 7, Israel's military incursion into Gaza has killed upwards of 11,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas' health ministry. The rising death toll has led to a shift in public opinion away from Israel and growing criticism of President Biden from the left.

An internal State Department memo accused Biden of spreading "misinformation" about the conflict and supporting "war crimes" by Israel.

Biden was initially supportive of Israel without equivocation, but he has increasingly pressured the Jewish state to rein in its military response.

The White House said it did not approve the Wednesday raid of the main hospital in Gaza by Israeli forces. Biden has said he agrees with Israel's assessment that the hospital is being used by Hamas, however.