Israeli strike kills Hamas commander and ten in Gaza City as peace talks stall
The attack on a residential building in the northern strip targeted Imad Asleem and his daughter, marking the latest in a series of high-profile assassinations that coincide with stalled US-brokered negotiations.
An Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Gaza City late on Wednesday killed at least 10 people, including five children, and injured approximately 20 others, according to local hospitals. The attack targeted Imad Asleem, a local Hamas battalion commander, who was killed alongside his teenage daughter, Israa. Asleem was buried on Thursday following a large funeral procession that featured a body wrapped in a Hamas flag.
The Israeli military confirmed it struck "two central Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip" but did not explicitly name the targets in its statement. This incident follows a rapid succession of Israeli operations against senior Hamas leadership, including the killing of Mohammed Odeh, head of Hamas's military wing, and his family on Tuesday. Odeh’s predecessor, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, was also killed in an Israeli strike on 15 May.
Eyewitnesses described chaotic scenes in the aftermath of the Wednesday night strike. Raslan Bajou, who was asleep in a tent nearby, told BBC News that his neighbours were injured and that his wife was among those hurt. Um Azzam al-Zaim, whose relative was visiting for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, described debris falling from a hit water tank and rubble crushing her tent. She reported seeing the bodies of children who had been blown from a neighbouring building after gathering to share chocolates.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz stated on X that Israel had pledged to eliminate everyone who led the October 7 massacre and that Hamas would not rule Gaza civilly or militarily. The strikes also targeted other figures, including Ihab Khrizim, head of a Hamas funds transfer network, and Mohammed al-Habash, a unit commander involved in weapons manufacturing, both killed in Khan Younis on Tuesday. Another attack on the same day killed at least five Palestinians in the al-Meghazi refugee camp.
The Gaza war began after a Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Israel’s subsequent military campaign has killed more than 72,800 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, a figure the UN considers reliable. Approximately 2.1 million residents of Gaza have been displaced, and much of the territory has been reduced to ruins.
Israel and Hamas are currently engaged in indirect, US-brokered talks regarding President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which involves Hamas disarming and Israeli troop withdrawals. The ongoing violence and targeted killings occur amidst these stalled negotiations, with no immediate resolution in sight for the displaced population or the political deadlock.
