The mastermind behind the Hamas atrocities on October 7 that left at least 1,400 Israelis dead is said to have been killed in his Gaza home on Tuesday.
Fouad Abu Btikhan, responsible for the crossings in the Gaza Strip (with the rank equivalent to a major), was killed in the attack on his house a short time ago in Ein Jalot Towers in Nzirat (the center of the Gaza Strip), it has been reported.
It comes as Israel conducts punishing airstrikes across Gaza as a ground invasion looms, while Hamas militants keep up a barrage of rocket attacks, and tensions mount near the Israel-Lebanon border.
All eyes will now be on Iran following the latest development. The hostile actor is threatening to take “preemptive action” against Israel “in the coming hours”.
Read more Iran’s parliament chants ‘death to Israel’ after Hamas attack[LATEST]
Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, dialled up the rhetoric in a live broadcast to state TV on Monday, as he referred to his meeting with Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday.
The foreign minister’s warmongering comes days after he called on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, warning that the war might expand to other parts of the Middle East if Hezbollah joins the battle, and that would make Israel suffer “a huge earthquake”.
He told reporters in Beirut that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has taken all the scenarios of a war into consideration and Israel should stop its attacks on Gaza as soon as possible.
In his latest address on Monday, Amir-Abdollahian said that “the resistance leaders” will not allow Israel “to do whatever it wants in Gaza”.
“If we don’t defend Gaza today, tomorrow we have to defend against these (phosphorus) bombs in the children’s hospital of our own country,” he continued, adding: “The possibility of preemptive action by the resistance axis is expected in the coming hours”.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, hospitals were on the verge of losing electricity, threatening the lives of thousands of patients, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced from their homes searched for bread.
More than a week after Israel cut off entry of any supplies, all eyes are on the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only connection to Egypt.
Mediators were trying to reach a cease-fire that would let in aid and let out trapped foreigners. Israeli airstrikes forced the crossing to shut down last week, but it remained unclear on Monday which of the regional actors was keeping the crossing closed.
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In other developments, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that Israel’s bombardment — launched after Hamas mounted a bloody, unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7 — has killed more than 2,700 Palestinians, many of them women and children.
But far more Palestinians have been killed than have been officially reported, with 1,200 people, among them some 500 minors, believed to be trapped under the rubble awaiting rescue, or recovery, health authorities said. They based their estimates on distress calls they received.
“So many times medics say they hear victims scream but they cannot do anything about it,” said Mohammed Abu Selmia, general director of Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s biggest medical center.
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