Hamas commander behind paraglider attacks killed in Israel jet strike: IDF

A Hamas leader who planned aerial attacks on southern Israel three weeks ago has been killed in air strikes, according to the Israel Defense Force (IDF), as the Gaza Strip faced heavy bombardment overnight.

The IDF said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that its fighter jets struck Asem Abu Rakaba, who was head of Hamas Aerial Array, which was responsible for the group’s UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], drones, paragliders, aerial detection and defence.

The IDF added in the post that Rakaba had taken part “in planning the massacre in the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip on October 7th” in which 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed and over 200 were taken hostage. Palestinian health authorities have said that Israeli bombing has killed more than 7,000 Palestinians, Reuters reported.

The Hamas leader also “directed the terrorists who infiltrated Israel on paragliders and was responsible for the drone attacks on IDF posts,” the IDF added in the statement.

The head of Israel’s Air Force Operations Brigadier General Gilad Keinan said that “around a hundred fighter jets” were used in its operation whose goal was “to destroy everything touched by the hand of Hamas.”

Israel said it had struck 150 underground targets in northern parts of the strip controlled by the militants, including what it called “terror tunnels, underground combat spaces and additional infrastructure.” Newsweek has been as yet unable to verify these figures.

Huge flames could be seen rising into the sky. The BBC said that Israeli bombardment in the north of the Gaza strip was on scale “never seen before,” although, with communications networks down, information was scant.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the charity organization known as Doctors Without Borders, said it had lost contact with some of its Palestinian colleagues in Gaza and that it was “particularly worried for the patients, medical staff and thousands of families taking shelter at Al Shifa hospital and other health facilities.”

The IDF had posted on X on Friday night that the hospital, which is the largest in Gaza, “also acts as the main headquarters for Hamas’ terrorist activity,” adding that the IDF “will operate to uncover any terrorist infrastructure.” Newsweek has not yet substantiated this claim.

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X that the communications blackout was making it impossible for ambulances to reach the injured and for patients to be evacuated.

IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner has called Israel’s actions a “limited invasion,” while on Saturday morning, the IDF posted a clip of Israel’s ground forces in Gaza and the footage showed aerial and infrared footage of tanks.

Meanwhile, the armed wing of Hamas said late on Friday that its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in the northeastern town of Beit Hanoun and in the central area of Al-Bureij. The group added that “Netanyahu and his defeated army will not be able to achieve any military victory,” referring to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.