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Israeli military says it killed a senior Hamas leader in Gaza three months ago

It said that a strike on an underground compound in northern Gaza killed Rawhi Mushtaha and two other Hamas commanders.

Israeli soldiers move next to destroyed buildings following Israeli strikes during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip earlier in September (Leo Correa/AP)
Israeli soldiers move next to destroyed buildings following Israeli strikes during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip earlier in September (Leo Correa/AP) (Leo Correa/AP)

The Israeli military said on Thursday that it killed a senior Hamas leader in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip around three months ago.

It said that a strike on an underground compound in northern Gaza killed Rawhi Mushtaha and two other Hamas commanders, Sameh Siraj and Sameh Oudeh.

The military said the three commanders had taken refuge in a fortified underground compound in northern Gaza that served as a command and control centre.

It said Mushtaha was a close associate of Yahya Sinwar, the top leader of Hamas who helped mastermind the October 7 attack into Israel that triggered the war.

Sinwar is believed to be alive and in hiding inside Gaza.

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Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry said 14 people were killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank.

The Israeli military said it conducted a strike in Tulkarem, without elaborating. Tulkarem is a militant stronghold in the northern West Bank.

The military said the operation was carried out in coordination with the Shin Bet internal security service.

Violence has flared across the Israeli-occupied territory since the Israeli-Hamas war erupted last October. Tulkarem and other northern Palestinian cities have seen some of the worst violence.