An Israeli air attack at a Gaza hospital on Sunday killed five people, including a political leader of Hamas, said Palestinian and Hamas doctors, in an Israeli attack he said he had directed a key figure in the militant group.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said that the strike was reached by the surgery department of the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said that their attack followed a wide intelligence and used precise ammunition to minimize the damage to the site.
Hamas said that a member of his political office, Ismail Barhum, had been killed.
Israel’s Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, confirmed that the goal was Barhum. The military did not name the goal, which he only described as « a key terrorist » in Hamas.
Hamas’s Al-Aqsa television said that Barhum was treated in the hospital for injuries suffered in a previous attack. Israel says that Hamas systematically joins hospitals, schools and shelters, which the group denies.
Reports of attacks that are heated
After two months of relative calm, the Gazans have fled again for their lives after Israel effectively abandoned a cessation of fire, launching a new air and land campaign against Hamas on Tuesday.
Another leader in Hamas, Salah al-BardaweelHe was assassinated on a separate strike in Khan Younis, he said Hamas before. The Israeli army confirmed that he had killed Bardaweel on Saturday.
Both Bardaweel and Barhum were members of the 19 member’s decision -making body, the political office, 11 of which have been killed since the beginning of the war at the end of 2023, according to Hamas sources.
The explosions were echoed throughout North Sunday, central and southern Gaza at the beginning of Sunday, as Israeli planes achieved goals in those areas where the testimonies said that it was a climb of the attacks that began at the beginning of the week.
Signing it could increase its actions even more, the Israeli military said that on Sunday one of its divisions that had operated in Lebanon, where Israel fought against Hamas’s ally, Hamas’s ally, was preparing for possible actions in Gaza.
He distributed a video of tanks downloaded in a field and a subtitle that said: « Preparations for the 36th Division for Operations in the Gaza Strip. »
At least 45 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli strikes in Rafah and Khan Younis so far Sunday, according to health authorities.
« Passing of » horrible « life »
Palestinian officials on Sunday meant the number of deaths of almost 18 months of conflict to more than 50,000.
The Israeli army said he did his best to reduce damage to civilians and questioned the number of deaths provided by health authorities in the territory led by Hamas.
According to health officials, most deaths in Gaza have been civilian. Israel says they include about 20,000 fighters. Hamas does not reveal victim figures.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the war aim is to destroy Hamas as a military and governing entity. The aim of the new campaign is to force the group to resign from remaining hostages, he said on Tuesday.
North -American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, spoke with Netanyahu to « emphasize the support of the United States in Israel, » said a spokesman for the State Department. They discussed Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza, efforts to bring home hostages and US strikes against Huthi militants with Iranian support to Yemen, added the spokesman.
Israel launched his offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 250 hostages, according to the Israelis.
« The military offensive of Israel has led to a terrible loss of life, » said Kaja Kallas, foreign policy chief of the European Union. « As long as this war continues, the two parties lose. »
Kallas added that Israel must respect civilian life and that threats to annex parts of Gaza were unacceptable.
Hamas has accused Israel of breaking the terms of the January fire cessation agreement, but said he is still ready to negotiate a cessation of fire and that he was studying proposals by the special envoy of United States President Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff.
Rafah neighborhood surrounded
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee published an evacuation warning for residents in the Tel al-Sultan district west of Rafah.
The military said that the troops had encircled Tel al-Sultan to dismantle the « horror infrastructure sites and eliminate terrorists in the area », in order to strengthen control and expand the security zone in southern Gaza.
He said that soldiers allowed civilians to evacuate the combat area through organized routes for their safety.
Dozens of families left their homes in Tel al-Sultan heading north to Khan Younis, some on foot, while others carried their objects and children in donkey and rickshaws carts.
« When the cessation of fire began, we put again tents next to the ruins of our homes, dreaming that our homes would be rebuilt soon, » said Abu Khaled, a resident of Rafah.
« Now we flee under the fire for the tenth time, when will we ever rest? When will there be peace in this city? » Told Reuters by means of a chat application.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said that 50,000 residents remained trapped in Rafah after a foray into the Israeli army in their areas, warning their lives and those of the rescue teams, were at risk.
UNRWA warns of the « Acute Hunger Crisis »
Palestinian and international officials also warned of the risk of a new hunger crisis.
« Every day without pochlisted foods closer to a sharp crisis of hunger. The prohibition of aid is a collective punishment in Gaza: the vast majority of its population are children, women and ordinary men, » the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, published in X.
On March 2, Israel blocked the entry of goods into Gaza and Netanyahu’s foreign policy advisor, Ophir Falk, accused Hamas of helping for his own use, a Hamas post has previously denied.
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