Delivery time2024-03-12 09:01
“Hamas 1st, 2nd, and 3rd figures are all dead”… Israel continues ground battle in Rafah
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
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(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Do-yeon = As Israel continues ground operations in the Gaza Strip even at the beginning of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed his will to attack the Palestinian armed political group Hamas, saying he will achieve “complete victory.”
According to dpa news agency on the 11th (local time), Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a video message, “We are on the road to complete victory. On this road, we have already eliminated the fourth leader in Hamas,” and “the third leader, the second leader, “The number one person is also on that path,” he said.
He then emphasized, “These are all dead. We will reach them.”
The Hamas top four mentioned by Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to refer to Hamas political bureau deputy director Saleh al-Arouri, who was killed in an airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon in January.
At that time, it was confirmed that a Hamas office in the southern outskirts of Beirut was attacked by an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone), killing six people, including Deputy Director al-Arouri.
At the time, Israel was pointed out as the mastermind behind this attack, but Israel did not make an official statement acknowledging this.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s remarks appear to be the first to mention the possibility of Israeli intervention in relation to the airstrike at the time.
It was also reported that the Israeli military was confirming intelligence that Marwan Isa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military organization, the third-highest-ranking military organization in the Gaza Strip, was killed in an airstrike the previous day.
Deputy Commander Isa is known to have been hiding in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has pointed to Hamas’ Gaza Strip leader Yahya Shinwar and Hamas armed group al-Qassam Brigades commander Muhammad Deif as first and second in Hamas’s hierarchy, respectively.
As Ramadan begins on the 11th and concerns grow that bloody conflicts will intensify, Israel is sticking to its ground campaign against Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, despite warnings from the United States.
Previously, US President Joe Biden warned that Israel’s invasion of Rafah was a ‘red line’, but Prime Minister Netanyahu immediately reaffirmed his intention to advance on Rafah.
The Israeli military announced in a briefing on this day that it had eliminated at least 15 Hamas militants through airstrikes and close combat in the central area of the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours.
In addition, it was announced that a special forces brigade in Khan Yunis, the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip, had arrested Hamas members and confiscated weapons while continuing to search Hamad Town, a residential complex.
dylee@yna.co.kr
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2024/03/12 09:01 Sent
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2024-03-12 00:01:51
