DEIAL AL BARA, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Sunday that a Hamas armed wing spokesman was killed in Gaza over the weekend.
Obeida’s final statement came on Friday as Israel launched the early stages of a new military attack in Gaza city and declared the area a combat zone. Hamas has not commented on Israeli claims.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously said that Israel had attacked Obeida, a longtime spokesman for Hamas’ Kassam Brigade, but he had no idea whether he had been killed or not.
“We are aware that no one on Hamas will deal with this question,” Netanyahu told the minister at weekly cabinet meetings.
Obeida is the latest Hamas representative to be killed with Israeli targets trying to dismantle the group’s military capabilities and prevent attacks like October 7, 2023.
Israel assassinated many of Hamas Top Army and Political Leadership.
“Death Strap”
At least 43 Palestinians have been killed since Saturday, most of them in Gaza City, according to a local hospital. The largest hospital in the territory, Shifa said 29 bodies, including 10 people killed while seeking assistance and others who raided the city, were taken to the morgue.
On Sunday morning, hospital officials reported 11 deaths from strikes and shootings. Al Awda Hospital said seven of them were civilians trying to reach aid.
Witnesses said Israeli forces fired at the crowds in the Netsarim Corridor, an Israeli military zone that divides Gaza equally.
“We were trying to get food, but we met a professional bullet,” said Ragheb Abu Lebda of Nuseirat, who saw at least three people bleeding from the gunshot wound. “It’s a death trap.”
The corridors became increasingly dangerous, and were shot while civilians approached a UN convoy overwhelmed by marauders and hopeless crowds, or on their way to a site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed US contractor. Neither the foundation nor Israeli forces responded to questions about the victims on Sunday.
Malnutrition and displacement
Israel has been open for several weeks in Gaza city’s suburbs and Jabariya refugee camps to prepare for the early stages of the attack, announced Friday. Its forces are intensifying air attacks in coastal areas of the city, including Rimal.
The Arabic Army spokesperson urged hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still in Gaza to flee south, but only tens of thousands of them did. Many say they are too tired after repeated displacements and not persuaded to be safe everywhere.
The United Nations says about 65,000 Palestinians have fled their homes since August 1, including 23,199 in the past week. Many live in temporary shelters after multiple displacements. Over 90% of Gaza’s 2.1 million Palestinians It has been displaced at least once According to the United Nations, during the war and many times
Israel has announced a new infrastructure project in southern Gaza, indicating it can cut back on aid to Gaza city. Palestinians say the amount of forced evacuation.
Israel has been open for weeks in the outskirts of Gaza city and in Jabariya refugee camps. It also strengthened air attacks in coastal areas of the city.
Seven Palestinian adults have died from causes related to malnutrition and starvation in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the territorial health ministry reported on Sunday.
This brings the number of deaths from malnutrition-related causes to 215 from late June, when the province began counting deaths among this age category.
Since the start of the war in October 2023, another 124 children have died from malnutrition-related causes, the ministry said.
At least 63,371 Palestinians died in Gaza during the war, the ministry said.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and is staffed by medical professionals. The United Nations and independent experts consider it the most reliable source of information on victims of war. Israel challenges the numbers, but does not provide its own.
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The Mets reported from Jerusalem and Magdi in Cairo. Melanie Ridman contributed to the report from Tel Aviv, Israel.
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