The armed branch of Hamas, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades spokesman, Abu Obeida, in January 2017. Ali Jadallah / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

A spokesperson for the terrorist group Hamas' armed wing was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza over the weekend, Israel's defense minister claims.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said Israel had targeted Abu Obeida, the longtime spokesperson for Hamas' Qassam Brigades but did not know whether he had been killed.

"I hope he is no longer with us, but I notice that there is no one on the Hamas side to clarify this matter," Netanyahu told ministers at a weekly cabinet meeting.

Later, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Obeida had been killed, saying in a post on social media that Obeida was "sent to meet all the thwarted members of the evil axis from Iran, Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen at the bottom of hell."

Obeida's last statement was on Friday as Israel began the initial stages of a new military offensive in Gaza City, declaring the populated area a combat zone.

Hamas has not commented on Israel's claim.

Obeida is the latest Hamas representative targeted and killed by Israel as it attempts to dismantle the group's military capacity and prevent an attack like Oct. 7, 2023, when militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

On Friday, Israel launched its latest military operation in Gaza City. The military's Arabic-language army spokesperson has urged the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still in Gaza City to flee south, but only tens of thousands have done so. Many say they are too exhausted after repeated displacements or are unconvinced that anywhere is safer.

Meanwhile, at least 43 Palestinians have been killed since Saturday, most of them in Gaza City, according to local officials.

Shifa Hospital — the territory's largest — said 29 bodies had been brought to its morgue, including 10 people killed while seeking aid.

On Sunday morning, hospital officials reported 11 more fatalities from strikes and gunfire. Al-Awda Hospital said seven of them were civilians trying to reach aid.

Witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire on crowds in the Netzarim Corridor, an Israeli military zone that bisects Gaza.

"We were trying to get food, but we were met with the occupation's bullets," said Ragheb Abu Lebda, from Nuseirat, who saw at least three people bleeding from gunshot wounds. "It's a death trap."

The corridor has become increasingly perilous, with civilians killed while approaching U.N. convoys overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds, or shot on their way to sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed U.S. contractor. Neither the foundation nor the Israeli military responded to questions about Sunday's casualties.

At least 63,371 Palestinians have died in Gaza during the war, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not say how many are fighters or civilians but says around half have been women and children.

Earlier this month, the U.N.-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared a famine in Gaza City, the Gaza Strip's largest city, although Israel has declared Gaza City a combat zone and is ending humanitarian pauses and ramping up air strikes around the city. Israel maintains supplies are reaching residents and denies there's a famine in the region.

U.N. World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain on Sunday told "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that she had recently toured Gaza and described it as "truly a devastating situation."

"Without a full ceasefire and the ability to get in, as I said, at scale, unfettered, making sure that we're safe, doing it as well," McCain said. "That's the only way we're going to be able to feed people. We have, in recent weeks, been able to get a little more food in."


Relatives of the 25 Palestinians, who died as a result of the Israeli army's attacks on the northern Gaza Strip, mourn as the dead bodies are taken from the al-Shifa Hospital for burial in Gaza City, Gaza. Saeed M. M. T. Jaras/Anadolu via Getty Images

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