The Israeli military said on Saturday it killed Ra’ad Sa’ad, a senior Hamas commander, by striking a car in Gaza City. Gaza health authorities said the attack on the car killed five people and wounded at least 25 others.
In a joint statement on X, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said they directed Sa’ad be killed after a Hamas explosive device detonated and wounded Israeli soldiers. Sa’ad, according to Israel, held several senior positions in Hamas and was a central figure in its military leadership.
Hamas, in its own statement, did not confirm Sa’ad’s death, but called the car strike a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that was agreed to in October.
“This crime reaffirms that the [Israeli] occupation is deliberately seeking to undermine and sabotage the ceasefire agreement through its escalating and continuous violations,” Hamas reportedly said.
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The ceasefire agreement was announced on Oct. 10, two years after Hamas militants killed 1,200 and took 251 hostage in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, most of whom were returned in previous negotiations. Since then, Israeli troops have killed more than 70,700 Palestinians in Gaza, many of them women and children, and have displaced most of the enclave’s population.
Health authorities in Palestine say Israel has violated the ceasefire multiple times, even daily, and at least 386 people have been killed in strikes by its military since Oct. 10. Israel, meanwhile, says three of its soldiers have died since the ceasefire began, and that it is responding to ceasefire violations by Hamas.
Multiple die after heavy rain hits Gaza
Nearly 795,000 displaced Palestinians are at “heightened risk” because of rainfall triggered by Storm Byron this week, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration said. Storm Byron hit Greece and Cyprus before making landfall in Gaza.
Heavy rain has been falling across “hundreds of displacement sites, overwhelming areas where even moderate rainfall can quickly become dangerous,” the IOM said.
“Despite the ceasefire, displaced Palestinians continue to live in overcrowded areas with little protection against rising water levels,” according to the organization.
This comes as much of Gaza’s infrastructure has already been destroyed in Israeli strikes.
Sana Abu Harad, 38, spoke to NBC News as she and her child, who the outlet said was shivering, sat inside her drenched tent.
“Everything is underwater,” said said in an interview with NBC. “Why must this little child sleep in floodwater? I struggled so much just to get this tent, and now nothing protects us. Where will I live with my children now?”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, said in a post on X Saturday that WHO is continuing to face challenges in bringing “vital supplies,” including laboratory reagents and diagnostic equipment, into Gaza as being they were classified as “dual-use.” Israel has restricted items it deems can be used for military purposes.
Aid organizations said, and an Associated Press analysis of data from COGAT showed, that aid deliveries to Gaza are falling far short of the amount ordered by the ceasefire agreement. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid entry, insisted to the AP that it is complying with the agreements call for it to allow 600 aid trucks into Gaza, even though its own figures showed an average of only 459 trucks a day have entering since Oct. 12.
In Gaza, Tedros said Saturday, at least 10 people died in the last 24 hours because of heavy rains. On Friday, NBC News reported that the Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza said fourteen people had died within 24 hours.
“Thousands of families are sheltering in tents with scant protection from the harsh winter,” Tedros said. “Combined with poor water and sanitation, a surge in acute respiratory infections, such as flu, as well as hepatitis, and diarrhoeal diseases is expected.”
He called for the “urgent entry” of resources to Gaza “to enable timely detection, response, and treatment of people facing these diseases.”
