By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel’s military said Saturday that its mission in Gaza is not over despite killing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in an operation that was planned for a year.
The comments came as Hamas-run authorities claimed scores of people, including children, were killed and many injured in Israeli strikes hitting a “refugee camp” in northern Gaza, though Israel maintained it targeted Hamas.
“Killing Sinwar is the result of a year of operational and intelligence efforts to bring him and other Hamas leaders to justice,” explained Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari, the spokesperson of Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
He played down earlier reports that Sinwar was killed in a “surprise encounter” with Israeli forces. “Sinwar has been eliminated, but our mission is not over,” he warned.
The remarks added to pressure on U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, as she had warned Israel not to enter Rafah, the southern Gaza enclave where Hamas had holed up among the civilian population.
She said in an interview that the U.S. would not rule out “consequences” if the Israeli military moved forward with a gathering invasion. However, on Thursday, she praised Israel’s success in killing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as he hid out in that very city.
Hagari said declassified footage, reviewed by Worthy News, shows “Sinwar’s hours” before his Hamas fighters committed the worst atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, on October 7, last year.
SINWAR TV
Sinwar was “taking down his TV into his tunnel, hiding underneath his civilians, and preparing to watch his terrorists murder, kidnap, and rape.”
Some 1,200 people, including babies and raped women, were killed, and 251 people were abducted by Hamas, which Israel has designated as an Iran-backed terrorist organization.
Following Sinwar’s death, several social media showed footage of “hundreds” of Hamas fighters allegedly surrendering to Israeli forces in the Jabalia area.
Worthy News could not confirm the footage independently, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not include such a video in their recent posts on social platform X.
However, at least 33 people were killed and 85 wounded in Israeli strikes that hit several houses since Friday in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic “refugee camps,”Hamas-run authorities added.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said the death toll from the strikes could rise as some people were believed to be trapped beneath the rubble.
The Palestinian official news agency WAFA claimed children were among those killed. Yet the IDF denied deliberately targeting innocent residents, while Hamas-run authorities declined to differentiate between combatants and civilians.
WRAPPED BODIES
Bodies wrapped in white shrouds reportedly laid out in the courtyard of al-Awda Hospital.
Hamas-liked authorities say Israeli forces have besieged the densely-populated Jabalia refugee camp for weeks.
The director of al-Awda Hospital said it had experienced an overwhelming influx of casualties, leaving hospital wards “completely full” with many of the injured “receiving treatment on the floor.”
Nearby in Beit Lahia, the Indonesian Hospital came under “heavy gunfire” from Israeli forces on Saturday, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
The ministry said more than 40 patients, as well as medical staff, were inside the hospital, adding that two people had died due to an “outage of electricity” and lack of “medical supplies”.
The IDF said their troops were operating near the hospital, and there “was no intentional fire directed at it.
Critics say Israel is trapping 400,000 people inside the Jabalia camp with little food or water for more than two weeks.
URGING CIVILIANS
Israel has urged civilians to leave, enabling its forces to target the last remnants of Hamas.
An Israeli minister, Amichai Chikli, “blockaded” parts of northern Gaza, which include Jabalia, to force Hamas to surrender.
“We allowed the civilian population to escape into the safe zone, and we prevented supplies to enter the blockade region,” he recalled. The minister stressed this was “legal according to the international law.”
There was also fighting reported in Lebanon between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters.
And, Israel prepared to attack Iran after an “assissination attempt” on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu officials said.
Saturday’s incident added to concerns that the region will be engulfed by war and strife as hope for peace faded away.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
China launched live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday or ordered the army to prepare for war as U.S. and Canadian warships sailed through the troubled waterway.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris faced a backlash on Monday after she pressured devoted Christian students to leave a campaign rally last week.
Hungarian anti-terror police have prevented an armed attack on October 23 when Hungary commemorates its 1956 Revolution against Soviet domination, after a tip-off from the U.S. Secret Service, sources said Monday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) estimates that Hezbollah’s firepower has been reduced to 30% of its original strength since October 8 of last year, when the terrorist organization began launching rockets into northern Israel. Since the ground operation in Lebanon began in September, the IDF has killed approximately 1,200 Hezbollah terrorists, raising the total to around 2,000 since the start of the war.
Hurricanes Helene and Milton are each expected to surpass $50 billion in damages, placing them among the most destructive storms in history alongside Katrina, Sandy, and Harvey.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Monday that the U.S. military has swiftly deployed its advanced THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system to Israel, where it is now “in place” and ready to supplement Israel’s robust missile defense network.
Caught in the crosshairs of the raging civil war in Sudan, a group of male Christian refugees were arbitrarily arrested and detained by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) Military Intelligence unit in Shendi, River Nile State, between October 12-13, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports.