Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that Hamas Gaza chief Mohammad Sinwar has been “eliminated”.
Netanyahu appeared to confirm Sinwar had been killed in a recent airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as he read out a list of Hamas leaders killed in recent strikes before the Israeli parliament.
Mohammed Sinwar is believed to be Hamas’ top military leader in Gaza after his brother Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds of the October 7 2023 attack, was killed by Israeli forces last year.
The Hamas chief was elevated to the top ranks of the Palestinian militant group following his brother’s death.
Israel has tried to assassinate Mohammad Sinwar multiple times over the past decades, and earlier this month Israeli media reported that a strike on a hospital in Khan Younis had been targeting Sinwar.
Earlier on Wednesday, Gaza's Health Ministry said at least one Palestinian was killed and 48 were wounded when gunshots were fired on a crowd that overran a new aid distribution site in the war-battered enclave that an Israeli and US-backed foundation set up.
It was not immediately clear who opened fire, Israeli forces, private contractors or others.
Israel has vowed to seize control of Gaza and fight until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed and exiled, and until the militant group returns the remaining 58 hostages seized in the October 7 attack that sparked the war.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the 2023 attack.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed around 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
More to follow.