Israel says it has killed senior Hamas spokesperson in Gaza

Deir al-Balah, Gaza: The Israeli military says it has killed Hamas’ long-time military spokesperson as Israel’s security cabinet met to discuss expanding its offensive in some of Gaza’s most populated areas.

There were no plans to discuss negotiations for a ceasefire at the meeting, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak with the media.

Abu Obeida (not pictured) was spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing.Credit: Bloomberg

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz identified the spokesperson as Abu Obeida, the nom de guerre for the official who represented Hamas’s Qassam Brigades. He was killed over the weekend. Hamas has not commented on the claim.

Abu Obeida’s last statement was issued on Friday as Israel began the initial stages of the new offensive and declared Gaza City a combat zone. His statement said the militants would do their best to protect living hostages but warned that they would be in areas of fighting. He said the remains of dead hostages would “disappear forever”.

Israel’s military said Obeida, whom it named as Hudahaifa Kahlout, had been behind the release of videos showing hostages as well as footage of the Hamas-led attack that sparked the war. The military also reiterated a threat against remaining Hamas leaders abroad.

Israel has killed many of Hamas’ military and political leaders as it attempts to dismantle the group and prevent an attack like the one on October 7, 2023, when militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel.

A ‘death trap’ while seeking food

At least 43 Palestinians were killed over the weekend, most of them in Gaza City, according to local hospitals. Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest, said 29 bodies were brought to its morgue, including 10 people killed while seeking aid and others struck across the city.

“Where are the resistance fighters that (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu claims he is bombing? Does he consider stones resistance fighters?” said a relative of one of the dead at Shifa Hospital, who did not give her name. She said they would not be displaced.

Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza Strip move with their belongings along the Sea Road, near Wadi Gaza on Saturday.Credit: AP

Witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire on crowds in the Netzarim Corridor, an Israeli military zone that bisects Gaza. “We were trying to get food, but we were met with the occupation’s bullets,” said Ragheb Abu Lebda, who saw at least three people bleeding from gunshot wounds. “It’s a death trap.”

The corridor has become increasingly perilous. Civilians have been killed as UN humanitarian convoys are overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds, or shot on their way to sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed US contractor.

The GHF told the Associated Press that there was “no incident at or near our site today.” Israel’s military did not respond to questions about Sunday’s casualties.

Meanwhile, Israel is reportedly planning to treat activist Greta Thunberg as a terrorist as she and other campaigners set off from Barcelona on Sunday on board a flotilla of boats attempting to travel to Gaza in the largest attempt yet to break the long Israeli blockade of the territory.

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Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, will present Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a proposal to detain the activists in harsh “terrorist-level” conditions in the Ktzi’ot and Damon detention centres for females, the London Telegraph said, citing reports in Israel Hayom, one of Israel’s biggest newspapers.

In June, Thunberg and 11 other activists aboard a previous flotilla were detained by the Israeli Navy 115 miles west of Gaza, where they were given water and sandwiches before being escorted to the port of Ashdod in Israel.

Post-war plan surfaces

In another development, the Trump administration would pay Palestinians $US5000 to leave Gaza as part of a proposal for the US to take over the enclave for ten years, according to

A post-war plan for Gaza is circulating within the administration that would see the US administer the war-torn enclave for at least a decade, the relocation of Gaza’s population and its rebuilding as a tourist resort and manufacturing hub, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.

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The Post said that according to a 38-page prospectus it had seen, Gaza’s 2 million population would at least temporarily leave either through “voluntary” departures to another country or into restricted areas within the territory during reconstruction.

Reuters previously reported there is a proposal to build large-scale camps called “Humanitarian Transit Areas” inside – and possibly outside – Gaza to house the Palestinian population. That plan carried the name of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, a controversial American-backed aid group.

Anyone who owns land would be offered a “digital token” in exchange for rights to redevelop their property, the Post reported, adding that each Palestinian who left would be provided with $5000 in cash and subsidies to cover four years of rent. They would also be provided with a year of food, it added.

The United Nations says about 65,000 Palestinians have evacuated since August 1, including 23,199 in the past week. More than 90 per cent of the over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced at least once during the war, many of them multiple times, according to the UN.

At least 63,371 Palestinians have died during the war, said the ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians, but that around half have been women and children.

AP, Reuters

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