Israel killed Hamas‘ so-called new Prime Minister in a precision airstrike that struck the largest hospital in southern Gaza last night, it has emerged.
Ismail Barhoum, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, was killed in the strike that hit the surgical building of Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis on Sunday night.
Barhoum, who had taken office just days ago, was being treated at the hospital at the time of the blast, Hamas said in a statement.
The hospital strike killed two people, included a 16-year-old boy who had underwent surgery two days ago, the territory’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said.
Others were left wounded in the blast, which also caused a large fire at the facility.
Nasser Hospital was overwhelmed with dead and wounded when Israel resumed the war in Gaza last week with a surprise wave of airstrikes, Hamas says.
The Israeli military confirmed the strike on the hospital, saying it hit a Hamas militant operating there. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas.
Barhoum is the fourth member of Hamas’s political bureau killed since last Tuesday when Israel resumed air strikes in the territory after an impasse over continuing a ceasefire.
A Hamas source told AFP after Sunday’s strike that the ‘Israeli army assassinated Hamas political bureau member Ismail Barhoum’.
‘Warplanes bombed the operating room at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where Barhoum was receiving treatment after sustaining critical injuries in an air strike targeting his home in Khan Yunis at dawn last Tuesday,’ the source added.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed in a statement that Barhoum had been targeted in the strike. The Israeli military said it hit the hospital with ‘precise munitions’ following extensive intelligence-gathering.
It said the target was a key member of ‘the Hamas terrorist organisation who was operating inside the Nasser Hospital compound.’
Gaza’s Hamas-run healthy minister said Israeli forces ‘targeted the surgery building inside the Nasser Medical Complex, which houses many patients and wounded individuals, and a large fire has erupted at the site.’
Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight killed at least 25 people, including several women and children, according to three hospitals Monday.
The strikes came nearly a week after Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas with a surprise bombardment that killed hundreds.
Meanwhile, officials say Egypt has introduced a new proposal to try and get the Israel-Hamas ceasefire back on track.
Hamas would release five living hostages, including an American-Israeli, in return for Israel allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and a weekslong pause in the fighting, an Egyptian official said Monday. Israel would also release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
A Hamas official said the group had ‘responded positively’ to the proposal, without elaborating. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media on the closed-door talks.
Like other medical facilities around Gaza, Nasser Hospital has been damaged by Israeli raids and strikes throughout the war.
More than 50,000 Palestinians have now been killed in the war, the Health Ministry said earlier Sunday.
