Hamas Commander Who Directed Anti-Tank Guided Missiles Killed By Israeli Airstrike

Israeli airstrikes have killed several top Hamas operatives, including Yaakov Ashour, a battalion commander of the Khan Yunis Bridge's anti-tank system, the Israel Defense Forces said Monday.

Through his position, Ashour "took part in leading and directing offensive lines against IDF forces," the Israeli military said in a post on X.

The strikes played out over the past day, officials said.

The bombings also took out Khosl Muhammad Hamis Dababesh, Hamas' head of military intelligence; Tahsin Maslam, who helmed the combat assistance company for the group's special operations in Beit Lahia; Jihad Azam, a Hamas intelligence officer in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood; and Munir Harb, head of information in the Rafah Brigade.

According to the IDF, Dabbash served as secretary of Hamas' national relations branch in its political bureau and was a Hamas representative "at the gathering of the national and Islamic factions in the Gaza Strip."

The IDF's announcement came Monday as Israel claimed its troops had killed 21 Hamas operatives who fired on Israeli soldiers from Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, the strip's second-largest hospital.

Al-Quds is about two miles east of Al-Shifa, the territory's largest hospital that has also been the scene of heavy fighting over the past several days, and is in facing dire conditions.

Earlier on Monday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Al-Quds had stopped operations because of a fuel shortage as Israeli forces continued a bombing campaign on the besieged enclave.

“The hospital has been left to fend for itself under ongoing Israeli bombardment, posing severe risks to the medical staff, patients and displaced civilians,” the PRCS said in a statement late Sunday, according to Al Jazeera.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza has reported more than 11,000 deaths since the outbreak of the war on Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel and killed about 1,400 people.