Israel drops leaflets over Gaza showing Sinwar’s body and message to Hamas By Reuters

Written by Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) – Israeli planes dropped leaflets over southern Gaza on Saturday showing a picture of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and the message “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza”, echoing the language used by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The move came as Israeli military strikes killed at least 35 people across the Gaza Strip and its forces intensified their siege of hospitals in Jabalia, north of the enclave, Palestinian health officials said.

“Anyone who drops a weapon and gives hostages will be allowed to go and live in peace,” read the leaflet, written in Arabic, according to residents of the southern city of Khan Younis and photos circulating online.

The words of the pamphlet appeared in Netanyahu’s statement on Thursday after Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces operating in Rafah, in the south near the Egyptian border, on Wednesday.

The October 7 attack Sinwar organized on Israeli communities last year killed around 1,200 people, and another 253 were dragged into Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli statistics.

Israel’s subsequent war devastated Gaza, killing more than 42,500 Palestinians, with another 10,000 dead believed to be buried under the rubble, Gaza health authorities said.

In the Gaza Strip camp of Al-Maghzai, an Israeli strike on a house killed 11 people, while another strike on the nearby Nuseirat camp killed four others.

Another five people were killed in two separate strikes in the south of Gaza in the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah, health officials said, while seven Palestinians were killed in the Shati camp in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Later on Saturday, an Israeli strike killed three Palestinians in Nuseirat in central Gaza, health officials said.

Late Friday, medics said 33 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 85 others injured in Israeli strikes that destroyed at least three houses in Jabalia.

The Israeli military said it was not aware of the incident.

It said the army continued to fight Hamas throughout the region, killing several gunmen in Rafah and Jabalia and destroying military infrastructure. Palestinian doctors said five people were killed in Jabalia on Saturday.

DISCHARGE INSTRUCTIONS

Residents and medics say the Israeli army has tightened its siege of Jabalia, the largest of the eight historic camps, surrounding it by sending tanks to the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and issuing evacuation orders to residents.

Israeli officials said the evacuation orders were aimed at separating Hamas fighters from civilians and denied there was a systematic plan to evacuate civilians from Jabalia or other northern areas.

In Jabalia, residents said Israeli soldiers surrounded shelters housing displaced families before attacking them and arresting dozens of men. Pictures that circulated on social media, which Reuters could not immediately confirm, showed a number of Palestinian men sitting on the ground next to a tank, while others were led by a soldier to the gathering.

Residents and medical officials say Israeli forces have been bombing homes and besieging hospitals, blocking the entry of medical supplies and food to force them out of the camp.

Health officials say they are refusing orders from the Israeli army to leave the hospital or leave the patients, many of them in critical condition, unattended.

“The Israeli occupation is strengthening its focus on the health system in the north of the Gaza Strip, by besieging and targeting the Indonesian Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital, and Al-Awda Hospital in the last hours and insisting that they do not work,” said the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

It said two patients who were receiving intensive care at an Indonesian hospital died “due to the siege of the hospital and the cut off of electricity and medical supplies”.

The Israeli military said soldiers operating in the area “were briefed on the importance of reducing casualties and medical infrastructure”.

“It is emphasized that the hospital continues to operate without interruption and is fully occupied, and there was no deliberate fire aimed at it,” we said.

(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi. Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta and Maayan Lubell, writing by Ahmed Tolba; Editing by Toby Chopra, Alison Williams and Andrew Heavens)