DEIR EL-BALAH – On Sunday, Israel announced targeting a Hamas spokesperson in Gaza, amidst reports from hospitals and witnesses across the region of numerous casualties from airstrikes and gunfire.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel had aimed at Abu Obeida, the known spokesperson for Hamas’ Qassam Brigades, but was uncertain of his death.
“I hope that he is no longer with us, but I do notice there is no one addressing this question on the Hamas side,” Netanyahu remarked during a weekly cabinet meeting.
Obeida last communicated on Friday, asserting that fighters were ready in Gaza City, which Israel has declared a combat zone. As Israel’s offensive began, Obeida mentioned Hamas’ strategy to keep hostages alive despite looming clashes in certain areas.
If confirmed, his death would add to the list of Hamas members targeted by Israel in its effort to weaken the group’s military potential, following the October 7, 2023, incident where militants kidnapped 251 people and killed about 1,200 people, primarily civilians.
Hamas has not yet addressed Obeida’s situation. Israel continues to eliminate many of Hamas’ top military and political leaders as part of its campaign against the group.
A ‘death trap’
At least 43 Palestinians were killed since Saturday, most of them in Gaza City, according to local hospitals. Shifa Hospital — the territory’s largest — said 29 bodies had been brought to its morgue, including 10 people killed while seeking aid and others struck across the city.
On Sunday morning, hospital officials reported 11 more fatalities from strikes and gunfire. Al-Awda Hospital said seven of them were civilians trying to reach aid.
Witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire on crowds in the Netzarim Corridor, an Israeli military zone that bisects Gaza.
“We were trying to get food, but we were met with the occupation’s bullets,” said Ragheb Abu Lebda, from Nuseirat, who saw at least three people bleeding from gunshot wounds. “It’s a death trap.”
The corridor has become increasingly perilous, with civilians killed while approaching U.N. convoys overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds, or shot on their way to sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed U.S. contractor. Neither the foundation nor the Israeli military responded to questions about Sunday’s casualties.
Malnutrition and displacement
Israel has for weeks been operating on the outskirts of Gaza City as well as the Jabaliya refugee camp to prepare for the initial stages of its offensive, which it announced on Friday. Its military has since intensified its air attacks in coastal areas of the city, including Rimal.
Its Arabic-language army spokersperson has urged the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still in Gaza City to flee south, but only tens of thousands have done so. Many say they are too exhausted after repeated displacements or unconvinced that anywhere is safer.
The United Nations says roughly 65,000 Palestinians have fled their homes since Aug. 1, including 23,199 in the past week. Many are living in temporary shelters after multiple displacements. More than 90 percent of the 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced at least once during the war, and many multiple times, according to the U.N.
Israel has announced new infrastructure projects in southern Gaza and signaled that aid to Gaza City could be cut — steps Palestinians say amount to forced displacement.
Israel has for weeks been operating on the outskirts of Gaza City as well as the Jabaliya refugee camp. It also intensified its air attacks in the coastal areas of the city.
Seven Palestinian adults died of causes related to malnutrition and starvation in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours, the territory’s health ministry reported Sunday.
That has brought the death toll from malnutrition-related causes to 215 since late June when the ministry started to count fatalities among this age category, it said.
Another 124 children died of malnutrition-related causes since the start of the war in October 2023, the ministry said.
At least 63,371 Palestinians have died in Gaza during the war, said the ministry, which does not say how many are fighters or civilians but says around half have been women and children.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes the figures but has not provided its own.
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Metz reported from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo. Melanie Lidman contributed reporting from Tel Aviv, Israel.
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