Israel has been ramping up its targeting of Palestinians over the past week in Gaza, killing field commanders from Hamas’s and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s military wings, despite a months-long ceasefire in place.
Yahya Fayez Abu Labda, the commander from the military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades , was killed in an airstrike on Tuesday last week, after Israeli warplanes bombed a vehicle in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis . Two others were killed, and 14 people were wounded in the incident.
Less than 24 hours later, Mohammed Abu Shahla, an Al-Qassam Brigades commander and intelligence chief for the Khan Younis Brigade, was also reportedly killed.
The Israeli military claimed the two were on the verge of "carrying out" operations, likely against them in the Strip, as a justification for their killing.
This comes as Israel is seen as likely to exploit the shift of focus from Gaza to Iran, where it is carrying out daily attacks with the US .
Tel Aviv and Washington launched a joint military operation on Iran on 28 February, with the aim of regime change and to remove any "threats" to the two countries, in reference to nuclear weapon developments - something which Iran has vehemently denied.
More than 1,500 have been killed in Iran since the assault began. Top officials, such as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani , and Iranian Defence Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani, have also been killed.
The war has spilled over to other parts of the region. Israel has stepped up its strikes on Lebanon , hitting the country’s south, the capital Beirut, and the eastern Bekaa Valley since 2 March, in response to Hezbollah’s firing into the country in retaliation for Khamenei’s assassination. At least 1,039 people have been killed in Lebanon since.
Amid the escalation of conflict in the region, Israeli forces have continued to violate the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, targeting members of Palestinian militant groups as well as civilians.
On Monday, a Palestinian woman was wounded by Israeli forces’ gunfire in the Halawa camp, which houses displaced people from Jabalia in the northern part of the enclave.
Forces also shelled various areas east of the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City, as well as east of Khan Younis in Gaza’s south. On Sunday, three people were killed after an Israeli airstrike struck a police car in the middle of the Nuseirat camp , hours after another Palestinian, identified as a leader of one of Fatah’s armed groups, was killed in northern Gaza’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.
Two of those killed in Nuseirat were Hamas naval operatives Izz al-Din al-Talbani and Tawfiq al-Khalidi.
Previously, Israel exploited events on the ground to justify killings and attacks in Gaza, linking them to the emergence of fighters from tunnels in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. However, this has recently shifted to direct killings without providing any real evidence that potential attacks were being planned. The second phase of the Gaza ceasefire appears to be at a standstill due to the Israeli and US war on Iran and Lebanon, as no provisions have yet been implemented.
Palestinians have expressed concerns that the ceasefire could collapse altogether due to the lack of monitoring, and with Israel continuing to carry out daily violations and killings.
Political analyst Iyad al-Qara told The New Arab that the assassinations in Gaza were "part of a continuous approach over the past period, aimed at keeping the Strip under constant pressure on all levels", adding that "these operations are carried out under the pretext of pursuing the resistance, despite their clear contradiction with the ceasefire agreement".
At least 650 people have been killed since the 10 October ceasefire took effect. As of Monday, the death toll from the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, ongoing since October 2023, stands at 72,263.