The group additionally mentioned on Sunday that their prime army commander is in good well being after an enormous Israeli airstrike on Gaza.
Hamas mentioned Sunday that Gaza cease-fire talks proceed and the group’s army commander is in good well being, a day after the Israeli army focused Mohammed Deif with an enormous airstrike that native well being officers mentioned killed a minimum of 90 folks, together with youngsters.
Deif’s situation remained unclear after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned Saturday evening “there nonetheless isn’t absolute certainty” he was killed. Hamas representatives gave no proof to again up their assertion concerning the well being of a chief architect of the Oct. 7 assault that sparked the warfare.
The Israeli army introduced Sunday that Rafa Salama, a Hamas commander it described as considered one of Deif’s closest associates, was killed in Saturday’s strike. Salama commanded Hamas’ Khan Younis brigade. The assertion gave no replace on Deif, who has lengthy topped Israel’s most-wanted checklist and has been in hiding for years.
Hamas rejected the concept that mediated cease-fire discussions had been suspended after the strike. Spokesperson Jihad Taha mentioned “there isn’t any doubt that the horrific massacres will impression any efforts within the negotiations” however added that “efforts and endeavors of the mediators stay ongoing.”
The killing of Deif would mark the very best profile assassination of any Hamas chief by Israel because the warfare started. It will be an enormous victory for Israel and a deep psychological blow for the militant group. Netanyahu mentioned all of Hamas’ leaders are “marked for dying” and asserted that killing them would transfer Hamas nearer to accepting a cease-fire deal.
Hamas political officers insisted that communication channels remained practical between the management inside and out of doors Gaza after the strike within the territory’s south. Witnesses mentioned it occurred in an space that Israel had designated as protected for a whole lot of hundreds of displaced Palestinians. Israel’s army wouldn’t affirm that.
On Sunday, some survivors have been indignant that the assault concentrating on Deif occurred with out warning in an space that they had been informed was protected.
“I heard the primary hit, and my son got here screaming, ‘Daddy, daddy” and took cowl with me,” mentioned Mahmoud Abu Yaseen, who clutched his youngsters however then awakened within the hospital to search out his son had died. The household had already been displaced 5 occasions because the warfare started. “The place will we go?” he requested.
A United Nations official described utter chaos at Nasser hospital the place victims have been taken, many handled on bloodstained flooring with few provides out there.
“I witnessed among the most horrific scenes I’ve seen in my 9 months in Gaza,” Scott Anderson mentioned in a press release. “I noticed toddlers who’re double amputees, youngsters paralyzed and unable to obtain therapy and others separated from their mother and father.” He mentioned restrictions on humanitarian support to Gaza hamper efforts to offer wanted medical and different care.
On Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant praised the pilots who carried out the strike and mentioned Hamas is being eroded day-after-day, with no capacity to arm itself, arrange or “take care of the wounded.”
At the least 300 folks have been wounded within the strike, one of many deadliest within the nine-month warfare sparked by Hamas’ 7 October assault on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 folks, largely civilians, and took greater than 200 hostage.
Greater than 38,400 folks in Gaza have been killed in Israeli floor offensives and bombardments since then, in line with the territory’s Well being Ministry. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its rely.
On Sunday, an Israeli strike in Nuseirat in central Gaza killed a minimum of 14 folks on the gate of a faculty used as a shelter for displaced folks, in line with an Related Press journalist who visited two hospitals. Kids have been among the many 15 others wounded. Israel’s army in a press release mentioned it struck “terrorists” working within the space of a faculty run by the UN company for Palestinian refugees.
Additionally on Sunday, police mentioned a Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem carried out a car-ramming assault in central Israel that injured 4 Israelis, two of them critically. Israeli border police on the scene shot useless the attacker after he hit folks ready at two bus stops alongside a busy highway. Israel’s army mentioned 4 of its personnel have been wounded, two of them severely.
Israeli police commissioner Kobi Shabtai mentioned such assaults have been usually “triggered” by occasions like Saturday’s airstrike in Gaza.
