Hamas says spokesman killed in Israeli strike on Gaza

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed one of its official spokesmen in Gaza on Thursday, the latest high-ranking operative targeted since Israel resumed its bombardment.

The group said in a statement it mourned the loss of Abdul Latif al-Qanou who was killed in what it called a “direct” strike on a tent he was in, in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza.

A fragile ceasefire that brought weeks of relative calm to Gaza ended on March 18 with Israel resuming its bombing campaign across the territory.

According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, at least 855 people have been killed since.

Qanou is the latest Hamas official to be killed in recent Israeli strikes.

Israel’s military said last week it had killed the head of Hamas’s internal security agency, Rashid Jahjouh, in an air strike.

Days earlier, Hamas had named the head of its government in the Gaza Strip, Essam al-Dalis, and interior ministry head Mahmud Abu Watfa, among a list of officials it said were killed in strikes.

The Israeli military confirmed it had killed Dalis, a member of Hamas’s political bureau who became the head of its administration in Gaza in June 2021.

Hamas has also confirmed the deaths of Salah al-Bardawil and Yasser Harb, both members of its political bureau.

“The occupation’s targeting of the movement’s leaders and spokespersons will not break our will,” Hamas said Thursday.

-AFP