The Israeli military said it killed two senior Islamic Jihad commanders, including one who allegedly took part in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, in two separate airstrikes over Gaza City on Thursday.
The airstrikes in Gaza City were part of the latest wave of bombardments in the Palestinian enclave, with three others killed in the blasts that took out the Islamic Jihad terror commanders, according to the Hamas-run ministry of health.
Islamic Jihad is among the extremist groups who helped Hamas carry out the brutal terrorist attack on Oct. 7 that left more than 1,200 people dead in Israel and triggered the start of the war.
The IDF also conducted airstrikes over Zawayda and the refugee camps in Bureij and Nuseirat, as well as the city of Deir-Al-Balah, the last major urban zone in central Gaza that has yet to see a ground assault.
Hamas officials, who do not differentiate between terrorists and civilians in their death tallies, said at least 21 people were killed altogether in the central Gaza airstrikes.
The bombardments came as IDF ranks pushed deeper into the southern city of Rafah, where the last bastions of Hamas are believed to be stationed.
The tanks advanced further into the western side of the city, where the IDF uncovered several entrances to Hamas’ tunnel network and killed several gunmen.
The uptick of conflict in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of refugees had sought shelter after being displaced by the war in the north, has pushed the 60-bed Red Cross field hospital in the city to its brink, the International Committee of the Red Cross (IRCR) said Thursday.
“The repeated mass casualty events resulting from the unrelenting hostilities have stretched to breaking point the response capacity of our hospital – and all health facilities in southern Gaza – to care for those with life-threatening injuries,” ICRC Gaza subdelegation head William Schomburg said in a statement.
With the IDF encroaching further into Gaza as the war stretches into its tenth month, CIA Director Bill Burns said Hamas’ Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar is coming under increased pressure to accept a US-backed cease-fire deal with Israel, CNN reports.
Israel and Hamas have resumed negotiation talks to discuss a deal that would immediately halt the hostilities and set up the groundwork to release the some 120 hostages remaining in Gaza.
