Assassinations Continue in Gaza with 70 Victims Last Month
Israel has intensified in recent days its targeting of areas west of the Shuja’iyya and Tuffah neighborhoods in eastern Gaza City, destroying many homes that had not been previously destroyed or had remained intact or only partially damaged during the months-long war and military operations in these neighborhoods. This comes amid ongoing assassinations of Hamas activists.
A Hamas activist was killed in an airstrike targeting him in the Ansar area west of Gaza City, while another Palestinian was killed an hour later in a strike on a tent on the roof of a house in the Al-Nasr neighborhood in northwestern Gaza.
Earlier, a member of the Hamas government police was killed when a drone struck a police checkpoint in Mawasi, Khan Younis, in southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military claimed that the deceased, Tamer Al-Hamaida, was active in the sniper unit of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. Three Palestinians, including a child and a woman, were also injured by Israeli forces in areas near the Yellow Line in Khan Younis.
Killings continue as operations proceed to expand Israeli control over new areas in the Strip. Field sources, speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, stated that over the past three days, including the most recent day, airstrikes had destroyed residential homes and buildings in the western areas of eastern Gaza City. They noted that the objective was to eliminate the remaining homes in the area, which are very few in number.
The sources suggested this may be linked to activities by Palestinian armed gangs operating in areas under Israeli control in the Strip over the past two weeks, before an explosion killed and injured some of their members, prompting Israeli military intervention.
One source noted that these homes are located on both sides of the Yellow Line, with some very close to Salah ad-Din Street, the main thoroughfare in the Strip. He added that Israel is “determined to destroy all homes east of the street up to the original pre-October 7, 2023 borders, as the primary goal is to maintain Israeli control over approximately 70 percent of the Strip’s area.”
