Israel intensifies attacks across Gaza, kills Rafah Brigade commander in Khan Younis
Hamas has confirmed that Samir Abu Younis, a member of its military council and commander of the Rafah Brigade in its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, was killed in an Israeli air raid late on Saturday.
According to local journalistic sources, an Israeli drone fired four successive missiles shortly after 11:00 pm at a tent in the Al-Mawasi area, south of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The strike killed Abu Younis and wounded four others, who were transferred to the Nasser Medical Complex for treatment.
In a statement published on its official Telegram channel on Sunday, Hamas said Abu Younis had joined the Qassam Brigades in 1991 and was a former prisoner in Israeli jails. He participated in numerous operations confronting Israeli military incursions into Gaza, rising through the ranks of the Rafah Brigade before assuming command two months ago following the assassination of his predecessor, Nael Abu Obeid, in mid-September.
The movement said Abu Younis was among the brigade’s prominent commanders who helped plan and oversee the Oct. 7, 2023 attack. It added that Israeli bombardment and the assassination of its leaders would not bring resistance operations to a halt.
“The more criminal and Nazi-like the enemy becomes, the more revenge burns in the hearts of our young and old. They hold on to that anger until the day they bring shame upon the enemies of God and humanity and utterly destroy what they have built,” the statement said.
The Israeli occupation army claimed responsibility for the strike, alleging that Abu Younis was involved in planning attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers, and accusing him of working to rebuild the military infrastructure of the Rafah Brigade in recent months.
Following the announcement, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz boasted of the assassination in a post on X, stating that the military “continues to eliminate Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip.” Katz added that he is directly overseeing the assassination policy in coordination with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, vowing that operations would continue “until Gaza is disarmed and there is no Hamas.”
Escalation across the strip
On the ground, the Israeli military stepped up artillery shelling and detonations of explosive charges in the Zeitoun and Tuffah neighborhoods east of Gaza City on Friday and Saturday, with attacks continuing into early Sunday. The bombardment forced residents to flee and destroyed dozens of homes, according to an eyewitness who spoke to Al Manassa.
“The focus is on the eastern areas. The army sends small aircraft carrying boxes of explosives, drops them on different houses and detonates them shortly afterward, causing extensive damage,” the witness said.
Mahmoud Ashour, a resident of Zeitoun, said he and his family, along with their neighbors, were forced to leave their homes on Saturday. The houses had already sustained partial damage earlier in the war, but small aircraft dropped explosive charges onto their roofs, which the Israeli military detonated remotely less than an hour later. The blasts left the homes uninhabitable, he said.
“We had been sheltering in two rooms of the house, but both were destroyed, so we had to move to a nearby camp. We now have neither a tent nor proper shelter. We’re staying in my brother’s tent. Our area has become dangerous after the latest explosions, and we fear further military operations there,” he added.
Further south, in the eastern part of the central Gaza Strip, the Israeli military intensified artillery shelling in eastern Deir Al-Balah, Al-Masdar village, and the Al-Maghazi and Al-Bureij refugee camps. The shelling killed a woman, a man and his child on Saturday after artillery fire directly hit a residential building in the Qastal Towers area east of Deir Al-Balah, according to a medical source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital who spoke to Al Manassa.
A medical source at the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza told Al Manassa that hospitals had received more than 20 bodies and over 75 injured people in the previous 72 hours as Israeli forces continued to bombard and target civilians with sniper fire across the Strip.