As Israel’s army continues its renewed offensive against the besieged enclave, a Hamas spokesperson has been killed by an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza, according to reports from news outlets.
Israeli fighter jets bombed Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua’s tent shelter in the city of Jabalia early on Thursday morning, according to Al-Aqsa television and the Shehab News Agency.
According to Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, Hind Khoudary, there were also some more people who were hurt in the attack, including children.
Khoudary claimed that the Israeli military carried out the latest wave of attacks in the Strip, including one that claimed the lives of six members of the same family in Gaza City.
Israel resumed its intense bombing campaign and ground operations in Gaza on March 18 with the abrupt end of a tense two-month ceasefire. In an effort to persuade Hamas to release the remaining captives in the war-torn enclave, Israel has since killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians.
In addition, several senior Hamas figures have been killed recently. Ismail Barhoum, the head of finances and institutions at Hamas’ political office, was among the five people killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday at Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Israeli fighter jets also bombed Palestinian refugees’ tents in Khan Younis on the same day. Sallah al-Bardaweel, a well-known Hamas politician and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was killed along with his wife.
Both men were members of Hamas’ political office, a 20-member decision-making body, with 11 of them dead since the start of the war in late 2023, according to the Reuters news agency.
During the southern Israel attack on October 7, 2023, Hamas still holds 59 of the roughly 250 captives.
Since Hamas launched its ground and air assault on the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli military has killed at least 139 people in Israel and injured at least 183 Palestinians, 828 others, and at least 1,139 in the country.
According to statistics from Gaza’s Ministry of Health, more than 80% of the casualties are women and children, with more than 50% of those killed coming from Israel’s reprisal attacks ten days ago.
The Israeli military has forcibly displaced 142, 000 Palestinians since March 18, according to the UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA), which only adds to the already dire humanitarian situation brought on by Israel’s ongoing restrictions on aid entering Gaza.
In the midst of weeks of tense and contentious ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, the death toll in Gaza is rising. The mediators, including the United States, Qatar, and Egypt, were unable to secure a three-phase agreement extension after it expired on March 1.
Hamas claims that Israel purposefully undermined negotiations to end fighting permanently.
After Hamas’ demands for an extension, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed he had ordered Israeli forces to retaliate against Gaza.
Source: Aljazeera
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