Israel strikes 35 targets in Gaza, kills suspected elite Hamas militant

Jerusalem, Jul 22 (EFE).- In the last few hours, Israel’s army attacked 35 targets throughout the Gaza Strip and killed Muhamad Abu Seidu, an alleged member of Nukhba, the elite cell of Islamist group Hamas, who instigated the current war between the sides.

The Israeli Air Force «striked approximately 35 targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including military, terrorist and other terrorist infrastructure sites,» the military said in a statement.

Over the past day, Israeli forces «eliminated numerous terrorists» in the center of the Strip, where an airstrike hit a missile launcher aimed at Israeli territory, it added.

In Rafah, a city in the south of the enclave bordering Egypt, soldiers «have eliminated dozens of terrorists in hand-to-hand combat and with the support of the Air Force,» among them Muhammad Abu Seidu, who «took part in the invasion to Israel on Oct. 7 and directed multiple attacks against troops,» the army said.

Two Palestinians were killed Sunday night and others were injured by shelling in Rafah, while in Beit Lahia, in the north of the Strip, a Palestinian was killed and several were injured by artillery fire at a house near a mosque, official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Three civilians, including two children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Khan Younis, an important region in the south of the Strip that has served as a stronghold for Hamas, the agency added.

The army ordered the evacuation Monday of the part adjacent to Khan Yunis of the Mawasi humanitarian zone, amid an imminent offensive against alleged militants in that area.

This further restricts the already scarce land of the Mawasi humanitarian zone, where 1.4 million displaced people are crowded, most of them from Rafah, which had been considered safe until the army’s incursion in early May.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fly Monday to the United States, his main partner and weapons supplier, amid growing international pressure to reach a ceasefire that would allow the release of hostages taken by Hamas and reconstruction from Gaza.

The war broke out on Oct. 7 after a Hamas attack against Israel that left some 1,200 dead and 251 kidnapped.

Since, the Israeli army’s attacks have left some 39,000 dead in the devastated Gaza, 90,000 injured, thousands missing under the rubble and 1.9 million have been displaced.

Almost the entire population of the Strip, who survive in very poor humanitarian conditions, are on the brink of famine and amid the collapse of hospitals. EFE

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