Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar (center) greets supporters as he arrives in Gaza City to attend a rally on April 14, 2023. | Photo: AFP
Israel’s military said on Thursday (17 Oct 2024) it was investigating whether senior Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in a military operation in Gaza, while an Israeli airstrike on a school housing displaced Palestinians killed at least 15 people, including five children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The military said in a statement that three militants were killed during operations in Gaza, without specifying where or elaborating. He said the identities of the three had not yet been confirmed, but the possibility that one of the three was Mr Sinwar was being “investigated”.
Mr. Sinwar was one of the chief architects of Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023and Israel has vowed to kill him since the start of its retaliatory campaign in Gaza. During the war, Sinwar went into hiding.
For years, the senior Hamas figure in Hamas, Mr. Sinwar was elected as its chief leader following the assassination of Ismael Haniya in July in an apparent Israeli strike in the Iranian capital Tehran. Israel also claims it has killed the head of the military wing of Hamas, Mohammed Deif in an airstrike, but the group said he survived.
The report came as Israeli forces continued more than a week of a major air and ground assault on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, where the Abu Hussein school was hit on Thursday (17 October 2024).
Fares Abu Hamza, head of the local emergency aid unit of the health ministry in Gaza, confirmed the casualties from the strike and said dozens of people were injured. He said the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital was struggling to treat the injured.
“Many women and children are in critical condition,” he said.
The Israeli military said it attacked a command center run by Hamas and Islamic Jihad at the school. He provided a list of about a dozen names of people he identified as militants who were present when the strike was announced. It was not immediately possible to verify the names.
Separately, a building in downtown Beirut that houses the offices of the Al Jazeera news network and the Norwegian embassy was evacuated following a warning.
Mazen Ibrahim, Al Jazeera’s Lebanon bureau chief, said the building’s administration had received three calls telling everyone to leave the building, which he said also housed the embassies of Norway and Azerbaijan, as well as dozens of offices. He said it was unclear who filed the warning.
Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ragnhild Simenstad said the building was evacuated after a “bomb threat,” without elaborating.
Published – October 17, 2024, 7:14 PM IST
