A senior Hamas political leader, Salah al-Bardaweel, has been killed in an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, a Hamas official told the BBC early on Sunday.
According to local reports, the air strike also claimed the life of Bardaweel’s wife. Bardaweel was a member of the group’s political office.
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Israeli authorities have not issued any comment regarding the strike.
The latest attack comes amid renewed hostilities in the region, following the Israeli military’s resumption of strikes on Gaza on Tuesday. The move ended a ceasefire agreement that had been in place since 19 January, bringing nearly two months of relative calm.
Israel has blamed Hamas for the escalation, while Hamas has denied the allegations and instead accused Israel of breaching the truce brokered by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States.
An official from the Hamas-run health ministry stated that 32 Palestinians had been killed in various locations across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours.The Israeli military’s offensive follows the deadly cross-border assault carried out by Hamas on 7 October 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
Since then, more than 49,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry, with widespread devastation reported across homes and infrastructure in the territory.
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