GAZA / JERUSALEM - At least 45 Palestinians were killed on Saturday in Israeli shelling and gunfire across the Gaza Strip, according to the civil defense.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Gaza Civil Defense Authority, told Xinhua that Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes on multiple civilian areas, including a popular market, a school, tents sheltering displaced persons, residential buildings, and public gatherings in various parts of the enclave.
Basal said that 37 people, including women and children, were killed in the airstrikes, and dozens more sustained injuries of varying severity. All the wounded were transferred to hospitals for treatment, he added.
Basal added that eight civilians were killed by Israeli gunfire in two separate incidents near US aid distribution points in the southern and central Gaza Strip.
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Also on Saturday, the Israeli military said its forces had killed a senior Hamas commander in an airstrike in Gaza City, identifying him as a key figure in the group's military buildup and in the planning of the Oct 7 attack on southern Israel.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said the strike, carried out on Friday evening in the Sabra neighborhood, killed Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa. The operation was conducted in coordination with the Shin Bet domestic security agency.
The military described Al-Issa as a founding member of Hamas' military wing and said he played a "significant role in the planning and execution" of the Hamas assault on southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, in which militants killed at least 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 200 hostages back to Gaza.
In his most recent role, Al-Issa headed the combat support headquarters of Hamas' military wing, where he allegedly oversaw aerial and naval attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers. He was also involved in efforts to rebuild Hamas' operational infrastructure during the ongoing conflict, the statement said.
Al-Issa had previously led Hamas's training headquarters and served on its general security council. The military described him as one of the last remaining senior Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas has not commented on Israel's claim.
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Earlier in the day, the Israeli army issued evacuation orders to residents of several central Gaza Strip areas, citing preparation for a new ground offensive in response to a rocket launch it intercepted overnight.
"The Israel Defense Forces are operating with extreme force to dismantle the capabilities of terrorist organizations in these areas," Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said, warning residents not to return to what he described as "dangerous combat zones."
Following the announcement, local eyewitnesses said dozens of families were seen evacuating the affected areas in fear of further escalation.
Meanwhile, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a press statement that it had targeted four Israeli engineering excavators with Yasin 105 missiles east of Khan Younis, setting them ablaze.
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The group claimed that Israeli soldiers were killed or wounded in the attack, with helicopters arriving to evacuate the casualties.
Israel resumed its military campaign in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire. Since then, at least 6,089 Palestinians have been killed and 21,013 others injured, according to Gaza's health authorities on Saturday. That brings the total number of Palestinian fatalities since October 2023 to 56,412, with 133,054 others wounded.
