Israel says it is investigating whether Hamas’ top leader Sinwar was killed in Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli subject said Thursday it was looking into whether Hamas’ apical person Yahya Sinwar was killed successful a subject cognition successful Gaza, portion an Israeli airstrike connected a schoolhouse sheltering displaced Palestinians killed astatine slightest 15 people, including 5 children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The subject said successful a connection that 3 terrorists were killed during operations successful Gaza, without specifying wherever oregon elaborating further. It said the identities of the 3 were truthful acold not confirmed, but it was “checking the possibility” that 1 of the 3 was Sinwar.

Sinwar was 1 of the main architects of Hamas’ onslaught connected Israel connected Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel has vowed to termination him since the opening of its retaliatory run successful Gaza. Throughout the war, Sinwar has been successful hiding.

For years Hamas’ apical fig successful Hamas, Sinwar was chosen arsenic its apical person pursuing the assassination of Ismael Haniyeh successful July successful an evident Israeli onslaught successful the Iranian superior Tehran. Israel has besides claimed to person killed the caput of Hamas’ subject helping Mohammed Deif successful an airstrike, but the radical has said helium survived.

The study came arsenic Israeli forces continued a much than week-old large aerial and crushed battle successful the Jabaliya exile campy successful bluish Gaza, wherever the Abu Hussein schoolhouse was deed Thursday.

Fares Abu Hamza, caput of Gaza Health Ministry’s section exigency unit, confirmed the toll from the onslaught and said dozens of radical were wounded. He said the adjacent Kamal Adwan Hospital was struggling to dainty the casualties.

“Many women and children are successful captious condition,” helium said.

The Israeli subject said it targeted a bid halfway tally by Hamas and Islamic Jihad wrong the school. It provided a database of astir a twelve names of radical it identified arsenic terrorists who were contiguous erstwhile the onslaught was called in. It was not instantly imaginable to verify the names.

Israel has repeatedly struck structure camps and schools sheltering displaced radical successful Gaza. The Israeli subject says it carries retired precise strikes connected terrorists and tries to debar harming civilians, but its strikes often termination women and children.

In a abstracted development, a gathering successful cardinal Beirut that houses offices of the Al Jazeera quality web and the Norwegian Embassy was evacuated aft a warning.

Mazen Ibrahim, Al Jazeera’s Lebanon bureau chief, said the building’s medication received 3 calls telling everyone to permission the building, which helium said besides houses the embassies of Norway and Azerbaijan, arsenic good arsenic dozens of offices. He said it was unclear who called successful the warning.

Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ragnhild Simenstad said the gathering was evacuated aft a “bomb threat,” without elaborating.

Israel has ordered the evacuation of respective buildings, arsenic good arsenic full cities, towns and villages, arsenic it strikes what it says are targets linked to Hezbollah.

There person besides been respective instances of evacuation informing calls and substance messages that turned retired to beryllium bogus, which Lebanese information agencies accidental they are investigating.

Israel launched its run successful Gaza to destruct Hamas aft the terrorists stormed into confederate Israel connected Oct. 7, 2023, sidesplitting immoderate 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting astir 250 others. Some 100 captives are inactive wrong Gaza, astir a 3rd of whom are believed to beryllium dead.

Israel’s violative has killed implicit 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not differentiate betwixt civilians and combatants but says women and children marque up a small much than fractional of the fatalities.

Northern Gaza was the archetypal people of Israel’s crushed penetration astir a twelvemonth agone and has suffered the heaviest demolition of the war, with full neighborhoods successful Gaza City and different towns reduced to rubble. Most of the colonisation fled aft Israel issued evacuation orders successful the opening days of the war, but astir 400,000 are believed to person remained contempt the harsh conditions.

Earlier this month, Israel erstwhile again ordered the full-scale evacuation of the north, and allowed nary nutrient assistance to participate the country for astir 2 weeks. That led galore Palestinians to fearfulness that it had adopted a surrender-or-starve strategy suggested by erstwhile Israeli generals.

Israel allowed 2 shipments of assistance to participate the northbound earlier this week aft the United States warned it mightiness trim its subject aid if its state did not bash much to code the humanitarian crisis.

Since the commencement of the conflict, Israeli forces person launched repeated operations into Jabaliya, a densely populated municipality exile campy dating backmost to the 1948 warfare surrounding Israel’s creation. The subject says terrorists person repeatedly regrouped determination aft large operations.

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Magdy reported from Cairo, Jeffery from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb successful Beirut contributed.

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