When the airstrike hit the surgical department, Israel got their target

Cairo/Jerusalem: An Israeli airstrike at a hospital in Gaza on Sunday killed five people, including a Hamas political leader, Palestinian medics and Hamas said, in an attack Israel declared had targeted a key figure in the militant group.

The Gaza health ministry said the strike hit the surgery department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said its attack followed extensive intelligence and used precise munitions to minimise harm at the site.

Hamas said a member of its political office, Ismail Barhoum, had been killed. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed the target was Barhoum. The military did not name the target, which it described only as “a key terrorist” in Hamas.

Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV said Barhoum was being treated at the hospital for wounds sustained in a previous attack. Israel says Hamas systematically embeds in hospitals, schools and shelters, which the group denies.

Video on social media showed a fire blazing on the third storey of what appeared to be the hospital. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage.

A 16-year-old being treated at the hospital was also killed in the strike, The New York Times reported, quoting the Gaza health ministry, which said medical workers had also been injured.

Rescue workers inspect a room at Nasser hospital after it was hit by a targeted Israeli army strike in Khan Younis on SundayCredit: AP

At least 45 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Rafah and Khan Younis on Sunday, health authorities said. Palestinian officials put the total death toll from nearly 18 months of conflict at more than 50,000.

After two months of relative calm in the war, Gazans have again been fleeing for their lives after Israel in effect abandoned a ceasefire, launching a new all-out air and ground campaign on Tuesday against Hamas.

Another Hamas leader, Salah al-Bardaweel, was killed in a separate strike in Khan Younis, on Saturday.

Both Bardaweel and Barhoum were members of the 19-member Hamas decision-making body, the political office, 11 of whom have been killed since the start of the war in late 2023, according to Hamas sources.

Explosions echoed throughout the north, central and southern Gaza Strip early on Sunday as Israeli planes hit targets in those areas in what witnesses said was an escalation of the attacks that began earlier in the week.

Signalling it could escalate its actions further, the Israeli military said on Sunday that one of its divisions that had operated in Lebanon, where Israel fought Hamas’ Iranian-backed ally Hezbollah, was preparing for possible action in Gaza.

It distributed a video of tanks unloaded in a field and a caption that read: “Preparations of the 36th Division for Operations in the Gaza Strip”.

The Israeli military said it did its best to reduce harm to civilians and questioned the death toll provided by health authorities in the Hamas-run territory.

Most of the dead in Gaza have been civilians, according to health officials. Israel says they include about 20,000 fighters. Hamas does not disclose casualty figures.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the aim of the war is to destroy Hamas as a military and governing entity. The aim of the new campaign was to force the group to give up remaining hostages, he said on Tuesday.

​Over the weekend, Israel’s security cabinet moved to establish a dedicated government department aimed at the “voluntary” transfer of civilians from Gaza, London’s The Telegraph reported.

Katz​ said the government was working to implement ​US President Donald Trump’s “vision” for Gaza, which involves the US “taking over and owning” the Palestinian territory.

“We will allow any Gaza resident who wants to move to a third state to do so,” Katz said.

Displaced Palestinians leave Rafah on Sunday as Israel resumes its military operation in the area.Credit: nna\advidler

The new government department would create movement routes for civilians wishing to leave and implement plans for checks at border crossings, he said. It comes after a ​​Gallup International survey found more than half of Gaza’s population would, given the opportunity, consider leaving.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Netanyahu to “emphasise US support for Israel,” a State Department spokesperson said. They discussed Israel’s ongoing military operations, efforts to bring hostages home, and US strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, the spokesperson added.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

“Israel’s military offensive has caused an appalling loss of life,” said European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. “As long as this war continues, both sides lose.”

Kallas said Israel must respect civilian lives and that threats to annex parts of Gaza were unacceptable.

Hamas has accused Israel of breaking the terms of the January ceasefire agreement but has said it is still willing to negotiate a ceasefire and was studying proposals from Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued an evacuation warning for residents in the Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood in western Rafah.

Smoke rises to the sky after an explosion in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel on Sunday, Credit: AP

The military said troops had encircled Tel Al-Sultan to dismantle “terror infrastructure sites and eliminate terrorists in the area” to reinforce control and expand the security zone in southern Gaza. It said soldiers were allowing the evacuation of civilians from the combat zone via organised routes for their safety.

‘When will there ever be peace?’

Dozens of families fled their homes in Tel Al-Sultan, heading northward to Khan Younis, some on foot, while others carried their belongings and children on donkey carts and rickshaws.

“When the ceasefire began, we returned to put up tents next to the ruins of our homes, dreaming that soon our homes would be rebuilt,” said Abu Khaled, a Rafah resident.

“Now we are fleeing under fire for maybe the 10th time; when will we ever rest? When will there ever be peace in this city?” he told Reuters via a chat app.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said 50,000 residents remained trapped in Rafah after they were surprised by an Israeli army raid into their areas, warning their lives, and those of rescue teams, were at risk.

Palestinian and international officials also warned about the risk of a new hunger crisis.

“Every day without food inches Gaza closer to an acute hunger crisis. Banning aid is a collective punishment on Gaza: the vast majority of its population are children, women & ordinary men,” the head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, posted on X.

On March 2, Israel blocked the entry of goods into Gaza and Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser, Ophir Falk, accused Hamas of taking aid for its own use, a charge Hamas has previously denied.

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