The moment Israeli air strike destroys building ‘housing Hamas chief’s brother’ in Gaza

The Israeli military said it had killed the brother of the current leader of Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that attacked Israel on Saturday, in an airstrike today.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck five residential buildings in the Gaza Strip, which it said were being used by Hamas operatives.

One of the buildings, she said, was being used by the brother of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar. Muhammad Sinwar is believed to have been inside the building at the time.

The IDF released a video showing the moment of the attack.

Aerial footage from above Gaza, taken by a bomber plane, showed the building in the crosshairs as smoke and rubble billowed in all directions.

Footage then showed several other buildings attacked in the same manner.

Given the magnitude of the explosions, it’s hard to imagine anyone in or near the building surviving such a force.

In the strikes, the IDF said it also hit a “situation monitoring room that monitored and tracked IDF activity,” according to The Times of Israel.

The military said two Hamas operatives were in the situation room when it was struck.

In a statement, the IDF said: “Following the Air Force strikes, warplanes attacked five houses used by operatives of the terrorist organization Hamas, among the houses were the homes of a “Nakhba” (commando) operative, a military operative in the resistance committee. and an operative house of the terrorist organization Hamas, where Yahja Sinwar’s brother apparently stayed.’

Yahya Sinwar is the current Palestinian leader of Hamas in Gaza, having taken over from Ismail Haniyeh in February 2017.

He is among Israel’s most wanted men, along with Ismail Haniyeh – a senior political leader of Hamas, and Mohammed Deif – the supreme military commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing.

Deif is believed to have masterminded Saturday’s brutal attack, in which Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,300 Israeli men, women and children.

According to a May 2022 article by The Times of Israel, Muhammad Sinwar was also a senior commander of Hamas’ military wing.

The article reported that Muhammad Sinwar had said at the time that the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas a year earlier had established new ground rules in which rocket fire into Israel’s heartland cities from Gaza became more feasible.

The war, also referred to as the 2021 Israel-Palestine crisis, saw Hamas fire rockets into Israel and the IDF responded with a heavy bombardment.

While more than 250 Palestinians were killed and 14 Israelis, the destruction pales in comparison to the conflict sparked Saturday by the Hamas attack.

“For us, firing rockets at Tel Aviv is easier than drinking water,” Muhammad Sinwar said at the time.

Israel is now preparing for a ground attack on Gaza in order to eliminate Hamas. Before that, they said they were targeting the leadership of Hamas.

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters Thursday that forces are “preparing for a ground maneuver” if political leaders order one.

Regarding the ongoing airstrikes, he said: “Right now we are focused on taking out their senior leadership. Not only the military leadership, but also the government leadership, up to (senior Hamas leader Yehia) Sinwar.’

In total, the Israel Defense Forces said they struck more than 750 ‘military targets’ in Gaza last night alone, with photos showing some of the neighborhoods destroyed.

The attacks came before Israel gave 24 hours to the 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate ahead of an expected ground offensive.

The announcement was made today, Friday, as the Israeli army massed its troops near the border with the Gaza Strip.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “The United Nations considers it impossible for such a move to occur without devastating humanitarian consequences.”

He added: “The United Nations strongly appeals that any such order, if confirmed, be rescinded, avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a catastrophic situation.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday: “Now is a time of war.”

His words came days after the deadliest ever attack by Palestinian militants on Israel.

Israel said it had dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza since Saturday.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has said that 1,500 Palestinians have died, a third of them children, with 6,600 wounded.

The Israeli government officially declared war on Hamas and gave approval for ‘significant military steps’ to retaliate against the organization for last Saturday’s surprise attack that left 1,200 dead inside Israel.