Gaza City hospitals say several killed in strike, as Israel targets Hamas leaders

Reuters

At least 10 people, including five children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a building in Gaza City late on Wednesday, according to local hospitals.

The target of the attack appeared to have been a local Hamas battalion commander Imad Asleem, who was killed alongside his teenage daughter Israa and buried on Thursday.

Hamas has not officially commented.

The Israeli military has released a short statement saying it struck “two central Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip”, without disclosing their identities.

It is the latest Israeli strike targeting senior Hamas figures in Gaza in recent days.

Footage from Thursday’s attack showed a badly damaged residential building in central Gaza City and destroyed tents in a neighbouring displaced people’s camp.

Around 20 people were reportedly injured.

Raslan Bajou, who was asleep in his tent at the time of the latest strike, said: “This is a sin, I swear it’s a sin.”

He told BBC News his “neighbours were in pieces” as he described the chaotic aftermath of the attack in which his wife was injured.

“We didn’t know what was going on,” said Um Azzam al-Zaim, whose relative was visiting her for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

She continued: “We were soaked when a water tank on the roof above was hit.

“Our tent broke and rubble fell on me from outside. It was difficult for us to get out of the tent.”

Um Azzam said that she had seen the bodies of children who had been blown off the top of the neighbouring building after gathering there to share their Eid chocolates.

Pictures from Gaza City on Thursday showed a large funeral procession taking place, with a body wrapped in the flag of Hamas carried on a stretcher through the crowds with a gun placed on top of it.

Several people were seen waving green flags, the colour associated with Hamas.

EPA/Shutterstock

The Gaza City attack came a day after the newly chosen head of the Hamas military wing, Mohammed Odeh, was killed along with his wife and two sons in an Israeli strike. One other woman was reportedly killed.

Israel has targeted a long list of Hamas leaders since the start of the Israel-Gaza war.

On Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that his country had “pledged to eliminated everyone who led the October 7 massacre” in 2023, adding: “We pledged that Hamas will not rule Gaza civilly or militarily.”

The Israeli military has also said a strike on a car in Khan Younis on Tuesday killed Ihab Khrizim, the head of a Hamas funds transfer network, and Mohammed al-Habash, a unit commander in Hamas’s production headquarters who was said to have been involved in weapons manufacturing.

EPA/Shutterstock

Another Israeli attack on the same day killed at least five Palestinians in al-Meghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, according to a local hospital.

The strikes come at a critical time when Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked in indirect, US-brokered talks to advance President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.

The next steps involve the Palestinian armed group giving up its weapons and Israeli troop withdrawals.

About 1,200 people were killed in the 2023 Hamas-led attack which triggered the Gaza war and 251 others were taken hostage.

Israel responded by launching a massive military campaign in Gaza, which reduced much of the Palestinian territory to ruins and left many of its 2.1 million residents displaced.

Israeli forces have killed more than 72,800 people in Gaza, according to its Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable.

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