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Israel kills three top Hamas commanders but rocket fire continues
Hamas confirmed yesterday that Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed three of its top commanders. However, large-scale rocket fire from Gaza targeting Israeli communities continued.
Violence in the region has increased since Tuesday, when Hamas breached a truce which brought about the collapse of ceasefire talks in Cairo. Since then, Israel has pursued senior Hamas military leaders and on Tuesday targeted Hamas’s military commander-in-chief Mohammed Deif. It still remains unclear whether Deif survived the attack or not.
However yesterday, Hamas announced that three of its most senior commanders, Mohammed Abu Shammala, Raed al-Attar and Mohammed Barhoum, had been killed in an air strike on a building in Rafah. The IDF said that Shammala was responsible for a string of attacks over the course of 20 years, while al-Attar was instrumental in the kidnapping of soldier Gilad Shalit. Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon hailed the assassinations as “a big operational and intelligence achievement,” adding that Israel would continue to “pursue and hit Hamas leaders at any time and place.”
Hamas-affiliated websites yesterday said that in the wake of the assassinations, Hamas almost immediately arrested and executed three people accused of collaborating with Israel. A further four people were also arrested, although it was not clear if they too would be executed. There appeared to be no legal process in any of the cases, with a senior Hamas source calling them “revolutionary procedures.”
Meanwhile, Gaza rocket fire continued to target Israeli communities across southern and central Israel yesterday. In total, 109 rockets were fired, with the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepting 13 rockets, including one heading for Modi’in. A man in his thirties in the Eshkol region was seriously wounded by a mortar. However, Hamas’s threat to specifically target Ben Gurion International Airport yesterday did not materialise.
Also yesterday, Israeli air strikes hit around 60 specific targets in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said that at least 30 people were killed in the strikes.