Israel says it killed Hamas leader in Gaza --[Reported by Umva mag]

Israel confirmed Thursday it killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during an operation in the Gaza Strip where it had targeted three militants. Israel said there were no signs that hostages had been present in the building where the three militants were killed. Sinwar, the chief architect of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, was named leader of Hamas following the August assassination of then-leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Iran blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s killing. Hamas is a U.S.-designated terror group. Money, identification documents and combat equipment were found on the bodies of the militants. Israeli media reported that the forces that encountered the terrorists were not in the area for an assassination operation and did not have prior intelligence on Sinwar's presence there. Sinwar, 61, was born in a refugee camp in the Gaza town in Khan Younis. He was an early member of Hamas, which was formed in 1987, and eventually led the group's security arm, which sought to purge it of Israeli spies. Israel arrested him in the late 1980s. He admitted to killing 12 suspected collaborators, a role that earned him the nickname "The Butcher of Khan Younis." Israel sentenced him to four life terms for an array of offenses, including the killing of two Israeli soldiers. Sinwar survived brain cancer in 2008 after being treated by Israeli doctors and was released from prison in 2011 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sinwar was part of a prisoner swap for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in a cross-border raid. Upon his return to Gaza, Sinwar quickly rose through Hamas' leadership ranks with a reputation for ruthlessness. The U.S. State Department designated him as a “global terrorist” in 2015. He was widely believed to be linked to the 2016 killing of another top Hamas commander, Mahmoud Ishtewi, in an internal power struggle. Sinwar headed Hamas operations in Gaza, working with Haniyeh to align the group with Iran and its proxies in the Middle East while also building the group's military capabilities. On the battlefront, health officials in northern Gaza said Thursday an Israeli airstrike on a school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians killed at least 14 people, including five children. The Israeli military said it was targeting dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants who had gathered at the school in Jabaliya, where Israeli forces had been carrying out a major air and ground offensive for more than a week. The Israeli military provided a list of about a dozen names of people it identified as militants at the site, but the names could not be immediately verified. Fares Abu Hamza, head of the health ministry's emergency unit in northern Gaza, confirmed the death toll and said dozens of people were wounded. He said the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital was struggling to treat the casualties. “Many women and children are in critical condition," he said. Israel has repeatedly struck tent camps and schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza. The Israeli military says it carries out precise strikes on militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but its strikes often kill women and children. Hamas-led militants triggered the war when they stormed into southern Israel on October 7 a year ago, killing about and 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The Israeli military says the death toll includes thousands of militants. Hamas is a U.S. designated terror group. Elsewhere, Israel’s military said Thursday it killed a Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, while also announcing a new round of evacuation orders in the Bekaa Valley. The Israel Defense Forces identified the commander killed as Hussein Awada and said he was responsible for firing projectiles across the border into Israel. Israel has issued multiple rounds of evacuation orders for parts of Lebanon, saying people need to get out of those areas due to their proximity to Hezbollah militant sites. The orders typically precede Israeli airstrikes. The latest orders Thursday included the Saraaine, Tamnine and Safri areas. Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli airstrikes Wednesday killed 16 people in the southern town of Nabatieh, including its mayor, and wounded more than 50. Lebanese officials denounced the attack on the provincial capital, contending it was proof that Israel's campaign against the Hezbollah armed group was now shifting to target the Lebanese state. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Israel "intentionally targeted a meeting of the municipal council to discuss the city's service and relief situation" to aid people displaced by the Israeli campaign. But Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, on a visit to northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, said Israel would not halt its assault on Hezbollah to allow negotiations. The Israeli military said it attacked dozens of Hezbollah targets in the Nabatieh area. Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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