Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
Less than 24 hours after restarting the war on the Gaza Strip on March 18, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that it had eliminated the de-facto prime minister of the Hamas-run government in the Palestinian enclave and several other top officials of the group.
Hamas acknowledged the deaths of Issam Da’alis, the head of the governmental activity monitoring committee, a position roughly akin to prime minister; Ahmad al-Khatta, the director-general of the group’s justice ministry; Mahmoud Abu Watfa, who headed the terror group’s interior ministry, responsible for the group’s police and internal security services in Gaza; and Bahjat Abu Sultan, head of the group’s internal security forces.
In a statement, the IDF said that it had killed those four senior Hamas officials, as part of its ongoing operation in Gaza, dubbed “Strength and Sword.”
The strikes have targeted mid-level Hamas commanders, members of the group’s politburo, and its infrastructure. Islamic Jihad members and infrastructure have also been targeted.
According to the IDF, the strikes are aimed at “causing a blow to the military and governmental capabilities of the Hamas terror organization, and removing a threat to Israel and its citizens.”
Da’alis, the de-facto Hamas prime minister, had replaced Rawhi Mushtaha following his killing by Israel in July 2024. The military said that as part of his role, Da’alis was “entrusted with the functioning of the Hamas terror regime in the Gaza Strip” and coordinating all the branches of the organization.
The military added that it can also confirm that al-Khatta, Abu Watfa, and Abu Sultan were killed in strikes on the first day of the operation.
From its side, the Islamic Jihad confirmed that its military spokesman Naji Abu Saif, also known as Abu Hamza, had been killed by the IDF.
More Israeli strikes targeted Gaza on March 19. The city of Khan Younis in the south of the Strip, the central area of al-Bureij, and the al-Tuffah area east of Gaza City in the north were all hit. Quds news, a Gazan outlet linked to Hamas, said the death toll in the Israeli operation is up to 429. Hamas-run health authorities had earlier put the death toll at 408.
Hamas had called on “friendly countries” to pressure the United States government into halting Israel’s renewed strikes on Gaza.
“We call on friendly countries to pressure the US administration to halt this aggression and genocidal war against defenseless civilians,” the group said in a statement released on March 18.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the resumption of fighting in Gaza on Hamas, citing the group’s refusal to advance talks.
According to Netanyahu, Hamas turned down all proposals to release more of the 59 hostages still held in Gaza, 24 of whom are believed to be alive. He said that Israel “extended the ceasefire for weeks during which we did not receive hostages.”
Speaking in a recorded video statement released on March 18, the primer said that Israel sent delegations to Doha and Cairo, to no avail.
While Israel accepted US envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposal for hostages to be freed and the ceasefire extended, he went on, “Hamas rejected every proposal, time after time.”
Netanyahu said that he always promised that if Hamas remained implacable, the military would resume the war on Gaza with growing force.
“And indeed, we have gone back to fighting,” Netanyahu said “We have gone back to fighting with force.”
“From now on,” the primer continued, “negotiations will be conducted only under fire.”
“This is only the beginning,” he warned.
The coming days will likely see more escalation in Gaza as Hamsa does not appear to be willing to compromise. The IDF could escalate strikes or even resume ground operations in the Strip. The death toll from the war on the Strip, which is thought to have exceeded 49,000, will without a doubt grow larger.
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this report or article was written by a zionist lover. usrael is the biggest terrorist in the world.. calling hamas terrorist just shows your low level of journalism in your career.. no one needs stories as to why usrael is innocent and fighting a terrorist organization’. with the help of donald trump, the child killers continue the genocide in gaza
i totally agree with you.
no, shyt you agree with a terrorist.
hows life in gayza?
booom!
sorry, how was life in gayza?
…!
and yours was written by a hater and a radical terrorist over.
oops, sorry… dead terrorist lover… cause you love dead terrorists…
the aggressor is as good as dead and their land is gone.
israel is annexing a lot of land from gayza now.
let*s hope the never learn… so, the rest of the land gets annexed too.
then the slavery of the left over ham@ssians can begin.
very true. anyone who opposes, or in any way criticises, the genocidal zionist terror regime , is apparently a “terrorist.” shabbos goy chumpo is psyching himself up for the war with iran. this will be the end of him and his degenerate regime, the jewsa and zio regime, and the world economy. the jewsa and its zio masters are rabid dogs that have to be put down before they destroy the planet.
if you took your head out of your male goats behind,
you d see that supporting a terrorist makes you one too.
this is some low iq nonsense. you can’t even insult people effectively… you’re supposed to quib… “if you ever manage to pull your head out of your ass, please let me know asap, cause i’d like to be the first one to call up the nazi pope to report the fucking miracle personally.” ok, maybe that… nvm, you’ll prolly fuck this advice up too…
hamas was created by mossad and the cia to combat and usurp the pla. so calling them terrorists is fine with me, as long as we are talking about them from the perspective of who created them to false flag another excuse to genocide gaza. israel is above and beyond genocidal, there is no moral, law, code, or rule they will not violate with a sadistic grin. jesus called it… synagog of satan, that’s what they are.
a terror group? it looks like most of the terror comes from the colonist entity and their sponsors!
the “@ss of ham” ist most definitely a terror group
well, they were a terror group…
no more…
all gone…
bye bye…
sayonara…
hastala vista….
zionist child killers call hamas terrorist. a zionist lover wrote this article
they dont call em anymore. just kylling em good
it was predictable, as soon as donald trump was sworn in, he sent 900kg bombs to don bibi. are these bombs to make peace or continue the carnage that has already begun? to finish it and open the gates of hell, as donald duck himself said, no surprise.
their god lives in hell.
finally united with its pestilence “yallah the snack bar”
your god lives in a sewer. you can tell by christian-jewish-zionist behavior. very degenerated, no morals.
have you no decency???
no, sir. you ufcking styoupit idyot,
there is no morals with terrorists
there is only destroying them.
that s all there is.
haha…!
lol
lol
lol
ditto above. 1 *
israel is losing. nobody who starts killing sprees comes from a position of strength. lets admit it, jews are useless at negotiating. they are like monkeys in a tree chimping out with bananas. that is why they are bombing again. they are frustrated that palestinians are demanding fairness in talks. jews do not like being equal with goyim
yes, israel is losing all the while destroying their enemy.
you have to be a ufcking leftist, right?
hamas’ only useful option is to react with maximum force. zionist obsession with killing officials has not of itself ever been decisive.
nope, their best option is to explode in gayza.
and they re doing a fabulous job, so far.
they must be very proud of themselves.
i know “yalla the snack bar” is…
groups of rabid yidz have picnics watching the gaza genocide it just shows the depth of evil that is the natural character of these people. say what you like about the na*is, but they didn’t take families to have picnics watching the gas chambers in operation. no normal society can tolerate these folk.
how do you like the new normal in gayza?
you should keep resisting and fighting…
just never stop
yalla awaits you with its 72 used up tranny whoars
lol
you do realize that everyone in this chat has at least half a brain except you. we are well aware that israel has the highest percentage of lgbtq faggots per capita, and the greatest number of pedophiles hiding out there world-wide. gaza will only become gayza once you faggots occupy it.
due to hamas’s stupidity, gaza, lebanon, yemen, syria and soon iran will be destroyed. a dead shapour bakhtiar would be better at leading iran than an ayatollah.
from the looks of it their old yeller-tollah is half way there…
lol
lol
lol
must be a way to clear the middle east of all jews and return palestine in full to the palestinians. reverse concentration camp gaza to accommodate the jews only and let them relive bergen belsen or some such institution made for jews!
says the dying vermin during its extermination…
very funny…
hey, your ham@ss family in gayza ok?
deport them all to chumpo’s big beautiful greenland. the polar bears won’t mind.
how do you like the deportation of the gayzans?
they are being deported to yalla the snack bar
southfront, shame on you, who the hell is writing your reports? what is this shit?
“mahmoud abu watfa, who headed the terror group’s interior ministry”
iran is hoping that maybe israel will make a 180 and be lovers with iran. all these years of bombing and killing was not enough evidence to wipe israel of the map? all these media posts are just show “the care”. in reality they work with each other behind the scenes to kill as many people as possible. proof me wrong faggs
wars happen everytime there are too many people in one place.
the mosloms keep ufcking 24/7 that s why gayza has exploded.
they hate eachother very much but their hatred for the jews holds them together.
that is no way of living together and in and itself very explosive. they have zero birth control.
it was bound to happen. it will happen more around the world.
imagine 50 people living in your house with you…
and now imagine they are there without you inviting them (illegals)
you might understand the problem if you are not a leftist.
:(