Israeli forces clashed with Hamas militants across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the Israeli military said, deepening their engagement in the decimated enclave even as the Palestinian death toll from relentless airstrikes in 12 weeks of war soared higher.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported Saturday that 165 people had been killed in Israeli airstrikes and artillery attacks in the previous 24 hours, adding to the ministry’s toll of more than 21,500 people killed in Gaza since the war began with the Oct. 7 Hamas-led raids into Israel.
The Israeli military said late Friday that it had destroyed a Gaza City apartment of the person it considers the mastermind of those attacks, Yehia Sinwar, the Hamas leader who sits atop the list of the Israeli military’s most-wanted list in Gaza.