Hamas, the armed group that controls Gaza, mentioned on Sunday that one in every of its high commanders had been killed in its battle with Israel there.
The announcement from Hamas got here on the third day of a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas to facilitate the discharge of hostages held in Gaza in trade for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Israel has vowed it’ll proceed its army marketing campaign within the enclave after the truce is scheduled to finish on Tuesday morning, with its major objective being the destruction of Hamas.
On Sunday morning the army wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, issued a quick assertion saying that Abu Anas al-Ghandour, who led the group’s fighters in northern Gaza, and three different commanders had been killed. It didn’t present additional particulars on when or the place that they had died.
The Israeli army mentioned earlier this month that it had focused Mr. al-Ghandour in a strike on Hamas’s underground infrastructure, according to The Times of Israel, however didn’t say on the time whether or not he had been killed.
A lot of other Hamas officials and commanders are believed to have been killed since Israel launched a battle in retaliation for the group’s Oct. 7 assaults, which killed an estimated 1,200 individuals in southern Israel and led to the kidnapping of roughly 240 hostages, in keeping with Israeli authorities.
Mr. al-Ghandour was probably the most senior commander that Hamas has confirmed useless for the reason that group’s announcement final month that Ayman Nofal, a member of its Normal Navy Council and the commander of the Central Brigade within the Qassam Brigades, had been killed.
The State Division put Mr. al-Ghandour underneath U.S. sanctions in 2017, saying that he had been “involved in many terrorist operations” — together with a 2006 assault that killed two Israeli troopers and led to the kidnapping of one other, Gilad Shalit.
Mr. Shalit was launched in October 2011 in trade for greater than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. A kind of freed within the deal, Yahya Sinwar, finally grew to become Hamas’s chief in Gaza and, in keeping with Israeli officers, a mastermind of the Oct. 7 assaults.
