Key Points
- Health officials say the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 50,000.
- Hamas and Israel say Israeli strikes killed Hamas political leader Salah al-Bardaweel.
- Israel has issued new evacuation orders for the Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood.
An Israeli airstrike killed a Hamas political leader in Gaza, the militant group said, and the Israeli military announced it had mobilised more ground forces for possible activity in the Palestinian enclave.
After two months of relative calm between Israel and Hamas, Palestinians in Gaza have again been fleeing for their lives after Israel effectively abandoned a ceasefire, launching a new all-out air and ground invasion on Tuesday.
Hamas said an airstrike on Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, killed Salah al-Bardaweel and his wife.
The Israeli military confirmed on Monday (AEDT) that it had killed the Hamas official.
Bardaweel was a member of the Hamas decision-making body, the political office, and had held posts such as heading the Hamas delegation for indirect truce talks with Israel in 2009.
Hours later, the Israeli military said that one of its divisions that had operated in Lebanon, where Israel fought Hezbollah, was preparing for possible action in Gaza.
It distributed video of tanks unloaded in a field and a caption that read: “Preparations of the 36th Division for Operations in the Gaza Strip.”
Explosions echoed throughout the north, central and southern Gaza Strip early on Sunday local time, as Israeli planes hit buildings in what witnesses said was an escalation of the attacks that began earlier in the week.
At least 40 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli strikes on Rafah and Khan Younis so far on Sunday, health authorities said, most of them in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis and Rafah.
Palestinian officials on Sunday put the death toll from nearly 18 months of conflict at over 50,000.
Israeli forces resumed airstrikes on Gaza on 18 March, ending a ceasefire that had been in place since 19 January. Source: AAP / Mohammed Saber / EPA
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said the main aim of the war is to destroy Hamas as a military and governing entity.
Hamas has accused Israel of breaking the terms of the January ceasefire agreement by refusing to begin negotiations for an end to the war and a withdrawal of its troops from Gaza.
Hamas has said it is still willing to negotiate and was studying “bridging” proposals from US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued an evacuation warning for residents in the Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood in western Rafah.
Dozens of families quit their homes in Tel Al-Sultan heading northward to Khan Younis, some on foot, while others carried their belongings and children on donkey carts and rickshaws.
“When the ceasefire began, we returned to put up tents next to the ruins of our homes, dreaming that soon our homes would be rebuilt,” said Abu Khaled, a Rafah resident.
“Now we are fleeing under fire for maybe the 10th time, when will we ever rest? When will there ever be peace in this city?” he told Reuters news agency via a chat app.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said 50,000 residents remained trapped in Rafah after they were surprised by an Israeli army raid into their areas, warning their lives, and those of rescue teams, were at risk.
