The airstrikes were conducted after Hamas last week refused to release additional hostages ahead of discussions.
The Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday that it had killed Salah Bardawil, head of the Hamas terror group’s planning and development office, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Hamas confirmed the killing and said that at least 26 Palestinians and a senior Hamas political leader were killed overnight from Israeli strikes across the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel had sent its military into a portion of the city of Rafah while thousands of Palestinians were evacuating.
Hamas triggered the war with Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with a large-scale assault on southern Israel that led to the massacre of about 1,200 Israelis and the capture of about 250 people who were taken back to Gaza and held hostage, some of whom remain there.
Israel said it has continued striking military targets while beginning ground incursions in northern Gaza.
Hamas said, Bardawil was killed in a strike in Muwasi that also claimed the life of his wife. Bardawil was a well-known member of Hamas’s political wing and has given numerous media interviews.
Gazan hospitals said they received 24 bodies from overnight strikes.
On March 15, Israel’s Cabinet approved a plan to create a new directorate that would advance the “voluntary departure” of Palestinians in line with President Donald Trump’s idea to depopulate Gaza in order to rebuild it. Hamas has pushed back on the plan to leave.
The new directorate would be “subject to Israeli and international law” and would coordinate “passage by land, sea, and air to the destination countries,” according to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Israel’s military ordered Palestinians to leave Rafah’s Tel al-Sultan neighborhood on foot along a route to Muwasi, which is a large area of tent camps. Troops later amassed on Tel al-Sultan to strike Hamas fighters and their infrastructure.
More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry. The number does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and it cannot be independently verified.
The health ministry said more than 113,000 have been wounded. Sunday’s count includes 673 that perished since Israel’s strikes on March 18, as well as 233 that were recently identified, according to the ministry.
By Jacob Burg
