An airstrike in central Gaza killed a top Hamas commander Tuesday as Israel ramps up its targeted attacks on the militant group’s hideouts, command centers and infrastructure.
Israeli forces killed Ayman Nofal, the most high-profile militant known to have been killed so far in the war, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. The Hamas military wing also confirmed Nofal’s death, according to The Associated Press.
Nofal led Hamas’s militant activities in the central Gaza Strip and was associated with the group’s “joint operations” room that coordinated between Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other militants in the territory. He was killed when Israel sent a strike into the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, according to the AP.
The Israeli military said it is ratcheting up targeted attacks against Hamas, which is recognized as a terrorist group by the U.S. and a number of other governments. Its attacks on Israel last week killed 1,400 people, including hundreds of civilians in their homes, at a bus stop and at a music festival.
Israel has responded with a bombardment of Gaza that has killed nearly 2,800 Palestinians and wounded thousands of others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly two-thirds of those killed were children, a ministry official reportedly said.
“When we see a target, when we see something moving that is Hamas, we’ll take care of it,” said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman.
Israel ordered people in Gaza to travel to the southern half of the territory last week in an announcement widely seen as anticipating a ground assault.
Many people in Gaza lack the ability to travel south, and Hamas has told residents not to leave and to stay in their homes.
Israel bombed parts of southern Gaza on Tuesday ahead of the expected ground invasion. Dozens outside the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis were hospitalized with injuries, the AP reported, citing residents’ reports. Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official and former health minister, reportedly said 27 people were killed in Rafah and 30 in Khan Younis.
A separate airstrike in Deir al Balah destroyed a house and killed nine family members living inside. Three members from another family who were evacuated from Gaza City were killed in a neighboring home, the AP reported.
Another 1,200 people in Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, the AP reported, citing health authorities.
With Israel’s attacks, coupled with Israel’s siege on food, water and electricity to the territory, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forced out of their homes and into shelters where basic supplies are quickly depleting.