Israel assassinates Rafah commander as Gaza building collapse kills at least 20
A residential building sheltering over 10 displaced families collapsed at dawn Wednesday in western Gaza City, killing at least 20 people, mostly children, and injuring 17.
The disaster highlights the growing peril facing displaced civilians across Gaza, where more than 2,000 structurally damaged buildings remain occupied due to a critical lack of safe alternatives amid ongoing bombardment.
Al-Shifa Hospital continued receiving dead and wounded pulled from the rubble nearly 12 hours after the collapse, a medical source told Al Manassa. Civil Defense officials estimated that up to 50 people remained trapped beneath the debris.
Musab Abdullah, 36, who lives next door, told Al Manassa he was asleep around 2:00 am when he was woken by a sudden crash, which he initially mistook for a nearby airstrike. Minutes later, as dust swept through the area, he discovered the building had completely collapsed.
According to Abdullah, neighbors attempted to rescue victims before Civil Defense crews arrived, extracting a small number of injured children.
The building had sustained direct structural damage during an Israeli strike in October 2023, prompting displaced families to move in several months ago rather than stay in tents, a young man from the Al-Ajla family told Al Manassa. He explained that 30 of his relatives were living in the structure, with most perishing under the rubble as rescue workers managed to pull out only two injured girls alongside several bodies.
Emergency teams worked with basic hand tools for over six hours before heavy equipment from an Egyptian technical committee arrived to clear the heavy concrete, Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal told Al Manassa. Basal noted that the structure, known as the Al-Saada Building, is the 30th compromised building to suddenly collapse over residents in Gaza.
Hours before Wednesday’s collapse, the Israeli occupation army announced the assassination of Nael Abu Obeid, commander of the Rafah Brigade and head of operations for Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. He was targeted in an airstrike south of Khan Younis in a joint operation with the Shin Bet, which was confirmed by a source at the Nasser Medical Complex to Al Manassa.
The occupation army said on X that Abu Obeid directed resistance operations in Rafah and worked to rebuild the brigade’s operational capacity.
Abu Obeid took command of the Rafah Brigade following the assassination of former commander Mohammed Shabana in a May 2025 airstrike on underground tunnels near the European Hospital, northeast of the city of Rafah.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the joint strike with the Shin Bet, stating it was carried out under directives from Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz.
The targeted strike involved three missiles fired by a reconnaissance drone into two displacement tents at the Al-Somoud camp south of Khan Younis, a medical source at Nasser Medical Complex told Al Manassa. The attack also killed an eight-year-old girl and injured nine others.
Abu Obeid’s killing follows the recent assassination of Khan Younis Brigade commander Mohammed Al-Yazouri, alongside several battalion commanders in the military wing of Hamas.
A journalistic source present at the Nasser Medical Complex confirmed to Al Manassa the killing of Abu Obeid, noting Hamas’s preparations to hold his funeral amid calls to participate in the procession.
Since Saturday, Israeli strikes and targeted assassinations have escalated across the Gaza Strip, killing several Al-Qassam Brigades commanders, including Khan Younis Brigade commander Mohammed Al-Yazouri, Jabalia battalion commander Ahmed Al-Batsh, Operations Authority company commander Raafat Abu Al-Zumar, and Mohammed Ajour, whom the Israeli military accused of manufacturing weapons for the movement.
More than 15 Palestinians have been killed and over 130 injured since Saturday, with at least 20 patients in critical condition in intensive care units, a source in the Gaza Ministry of Health told Al Manassa.