BLOWN TO HELL
Hamas’s top terror commander Ayman Nofal is KILLED in Israeli airstrike on Gaza in biggest scalp of conflict so far
HAMAS' top terror commander has been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Ayman Nofal is the most high-profile Hamas militant to be assassinated so far as Israel continues to bombard Gaza with rockets.
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Nofal was in charge of the Central Gaza area in the armed wing Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades.
The terrorist group said in a statement: "Nofal, known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed, was killed Tuesday in Israeli strikes that targeted the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip."
Footage shows the pinpoint attack erupting into a fireball as smoke fills the air.
Pictures meanwhile show Palestinians crowding around as Nofal's body was carried through the Bureij camp in central Gaza.
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The deadly blast came hours after the IDF confirmed it had killed senior Hamas official Dr Osama Mazini.
A clip shared on social media showed the bombing in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis last night
Dr Mazini, who was understood to have been Primary Hamas Negotiator for the 2011 prisoner swap, was taken out in the blast.
He handled the file of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas in Gaza for five years.
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The Israeli military said it is targeting Hamas hideouts, infrastructure and command centres in retaliation for its horror massacre on October 7.
Hundreds of Hamas terrorists stormed across the border on motorbikes and paragliders and turned towns and a music festival into a bloodbath - leaving hundreds of Israelis dead.
Israel has since unleashed rockets into Gaza and warned more than one million of the territories citizens in the north to flee south.
Israel has warned Gaza it is preparing an all-out assault “from the air, land and sea, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling front-line soldiers: “The next stage is coming.”
With nearly 400,000 troops gearing up for battle, he said: "They are ready to take action to defeat the bloodthirsty monsters who have risen against us to destroy us.
"Hamas thought that we would come apart - we will demolish Hamas."
Palestinians described intense bombardments early Tuesday near two towns in southern Gaza, where Israel had ordered civilians to seek refuge.
Thousands of people desperately trying to escape Gaza are gathered in Rafah, which has the territory's only border crossing to Egypt.
Mediators are pressing for an agreement to let aid in and refugees with foreign passports out.
The US hoped to break a deadlock with President Joe Biden set to head to the region on Wednesday.
Aid workers warned that life in Gaza was near complete collapse because of the Israeli siege that followed a Hamas attack on Israel.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,778 Palestinians have been killed and 9,700 wounded.
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Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead.
More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, and at least 199 others, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to Israel.
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