Top Hamas commander killed in Israeli airstrike

Israeli-Palestinian violence flares up
An Israeli airstrike hits Gaza
REUTERS
Luke O'Reilly12 May 2021

A top Hamas commander has been killed in an Israeli airstrike - the group's highest ranking military casualty since the 2014 war.

Militant group Hamas confirmed its Gaza City commander had been killed during the attack on Wednesday.

Bassem Issa is the highest-ranking military figure in Hamas to be killed by Israel since a 2014 war in Gaza.

In a statement, the armed wing of Hamas said Issa was killed "along with a few of his fellow brothers of leaders and holy fighters" during the fighting that has been going on for two days in Gaza.

PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT
A destroyed building in Gaza
AFP via Getty Images

Earlier, Israel's internal security agency said that a series of Israeli airstrikes had killed Issa and several other senior Hamas militants.

Issa and several commanders responsible for the different districts of the Gaza Strip form the military council of Hamas, the highest body deciding the group's militant operations.

The Associated Press reported that truce efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations had made no progress to end violence that flared this week after tension during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and clashes in East Jerusalem.

The offensive is the heaviest between Israel and Hamas since a 2014 war in the Hamas-ruled enclave, and concern is growing that the situation could spiral out of control.

PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT
Sixteen people were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Wednesday
AFP via Getty Images

In Gaza, a multi-storey residential building collapsed after Israel warned its occupants in advance to evacuate, and another was heavily damaged in the air strikes.

Other air strikes hit what Israel's military said were rocket launch sites, Hamas offices and the homes of Hamas leaders. Israeli officials said at least 41 Palestinian fighters have been killed in the Gaza hostilities so far.

"Israel has gone crazy," said a man on a Gaza street, where people ran out of their homes as explosions rocked buildings.

Sixteen people were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Wednesday, Gaza's health ministry said. Witnesses and health officials in Gaza said one Israeli air strike killed three people, including a woman, in a car.

It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he wants to see an "urgent de-escalation of tensions" between Israel and Hamas.

Mr Johnson tweeted on Wednesday that the United Kingdom is "deeply concerned" and urged leaders to "step back from the brink."

He was one of many leaders around the world offering up advice after longtime tensions in contested Jerusalem erupted into rocket-fire from the Gaza Strip and an intense response from Israel.

Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly told Parliament that Britain "unequivocally condemns the firing of rockets at Jerusalem and other locations in Israel." He called Hamas' conduct "terrorism" and called on militants to "end their incitement and rocket fire against Israel."

Mr Cleverly said Israel has a "legitimate right to self-defense," but added that in doing so, "it is vital that all actions are proportionate, in line with international humanitarian law and make every effort to avoid civilian casualties."

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