By Mohammed Majed
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – The Israeli army claimed Sunday that it had killed a commander in Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades in an airstrike that killed at least 90 people and injured hundreds of others.
“Warplanes attacked yesterday and killed, based on intelligence information, Rafa’a Salameh, commander of the Khan Younis Brigade in Hamas,” the military said in a statement on X.
It added that Salameh was one of the commanders behind the Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people and also was in charge of plans for building tunnels.
On Saturday, Hamas rejected Israeli claims that its deadly Israeli airstrike on displaced Palestinians' tents in the southern Gaza Strip had targeted Hamas leaders.
“The Al-Mawasi operation targeted Mohammed Deif and his deputy, Rafa’a Salameh, but so far there are no confirmations of their deaths,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
Nearly 38,600 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 89,000 injured, according to local health authorities.
Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala