As the war between Israel and Hamas enters its eighth, the Israel Defence Force stated that a top commander of the Hamas militant was killed by Israel airstrikes today.
In a statement released, Israeli intelligence claimed that the location of Billal Al Kedra, responsible for the Kibbutz Nirim massacre, was tracked in Khan Yunis, a city in the south of Gaza. Al Kedra was a commander of the Nukhba force, a naval commando unit under Hamas' special forces unit of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brig. The defence forces claimed that other "terrorists" associated with the group were also killed.
Gaza's 2.3 million civilians faced a deepening struggle for food, water and safety Sunday and braced for a looming invasion a week after Hamas militants launched a deadly assault on Israel.
While hundreds of thousands sought to heed Israel's order to evacuate the north, others huddled at hospitals there.
Israeli forces, supported by a growing deployment of US warships in the region, positioned themselves along Gaza's border and drilled for what Israel said would be a broad campaign to dismantle the militant group. A week of blistering airstrikes have demolished entire neighbourhoods but failed to stem militant rocket fire into Israel.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,329 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting erupted, making this the deadliest of the five Gaza wars for Palestinians.
The death toll on Sunday surpassed that of the third war between Israel and Hamas, in the summer of 2014, when 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, were killed, according to UN figures. That war lasted six weeks, and 74 people were killed on the Israeli side, including six civilians.
