Israel kills Hamas spokesperson as hospitals report dozens killed in Gaza City

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, announced Sunday that Abu Obeida, a spokesperson for Hamas’ armed wing, was killed in Gaza over the weekend.

Obeida’s last statement was on Friday as Israel began the initial stages of a new offensive in Gaza City, declaring the area a combat zone. Hamas has not commented on Israel’s claim.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel said on Sunday that it had targeted a Gaza-based Hamas spokesperson as hospitals and witnesses across the enclave reported dozens killed in airstrikes and gunfire.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had attacked Abu Obeida, the longtime spokesman for Hamas’ Qassam Brigades, but did not know whether he had been killed.

“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 told ministers at a weekly cabinet meeting.

Obeida last issued a statement on Friday. He said fighters in Gaza City were prepared as Israel declared the city a combat zone and launched the early stages of its offensive. Hamas would try to keep the hostages alive, he said, while warning that clashes were expected in areas where some are being held.

If his death is confirmed, he would be the latest Hamas representative targeted and killed by Israel as it attempts to dismantle the group’s military capacity and prevent an attack like Oct. 7, 2023, when militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Hamas has yet to comment on Obeida’s status. As part of its campaign to destroy Hamas, Israel has assassinated many of its top military and political leadership.

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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