Hamas condemns Israel’s intensifying bombardment of Gaza, calling it a “dangerous escalation” in what the Islamist group describes as a “brutal genocide war”. The statement came on Thursday as Israeli forces killed at least 26 Palestinians in airstrikes across the territory, with Rafah and eastern Gaza City bearing the brunt of the assault.
The militant group accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of attempting to “claim a military achievement through the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity” and called for intervention from the international community.
Escalating violence across Gaza
Israeli forces conducted more than 35 airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, according to Palestinian reports. The northern section of Rafah, a southern border city that has become a refuge for displaced Palestinians, faced relentless shelling and bombing, as did the Shuja’iyya neighbourhood east of Gaza City.
In one of the deadliest incidents, an Israeli strike near the Public Service area in Gaza City reportedly killed seven people, including Judge Amjad Sharab and his daughter Jumana. Among the dead was Mo’men Haddad, son of Izz El-Din Haddad, commander of the Gaza Brigade of Hamas’s military wing.
Another strike on a home in Shuja’iyya resulted in six fatalities, while two children from the Hassanein family were killed by a drone strike east of Gaza City.
Meanwhile, Israel claimed its strikes killed Hamas’s Haitham Razek Abd al-Karim Sheikh Khalil. Moreover, in a tweet, the Israel Defense Forces claimed, “Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence.”
🔴 ELIMINATED: The Commander of Hamas' Shejaiya Battalion
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 10, 2025
Haitham Razek Abd al-Karim Sheikh Khalil was eliminated, together with other Hamas terrorists, in a precise strike on a command and control center in Gaza City.
Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate… pic.twitter.com/7QWcJ1LNZD
Hamas condemns ‘dangerous escalation’
In a strongly worded statement, Hamas condemns what it called Israel’s attempt to “impose a new reality” in Rafah by isolating it from the rest of Gaza and forcing its residents to flee.
The group claimed that Israel’s actions confirm that “the criminal, Nazi-like occupation does not only target Rafah. Rather, it seeks to completely isolate Gaza from its Arab depth and deprive our people of their only gateway to the outside world.”
Hamas condemns what it describes as “genocide, ethnic cleansing, and forced displacement” that “could not have happened without the regional and international silence, and the absence of decisive and deterrent decisions against the leaders of the criminal fascist occupation government.”
The statement makes specific reference to Netanyahu’s announcement of what he termed “Philadelphia Corridor 2”, suggesting an expansion of the buffer zone along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Prisoners released showing ‘signs of torture‘
In a rare development amid the violence, Israeli forces released ten Palestinian prisoners who arrived at Al-Aqsa Hospital from detention facilities identified as “Sde Teman” and Naqab (Negev). Palestinian sources reported that the released prisoners showed “signs of torture” with one unable to move.
Separately, Palestinian officials announced the death of prisoner Khalil Haniyeh while in Israeli custody, though the circumstances of his death were not immediately clear.
Hour-by-hour violence
The day’s violence began in the early hours of Thursday with artillery shelling in eastern Khan Younis and targeting in northern Rafah, including helicopter fire. One Palestinian, identified as Hani Abu Madyan, was killed by shelling of a tent in Nusseirat refugee camp between 2am and 4am.
The bombardment continued throughout the morning, with multiple airstrikes reported in northern Rafah and artillery fire in Shuja’iyya. A child succumbed to wounds sustained earlier in eastern Khan Younis, while another child was wounded by gunfire north of Rafah.
By afternoon, Israeli forces had conducted drone strikes in Beit Lahia and eastern Khan Younis, with reports of casualties continuing into the evening.
In the latest toll, two Palestinians were reported killed and others wounded in an Israeli airstrike targeting a residential building in Abasan Al-Kabira town, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the Quds News Network reported.
International response sought
Hamas’s statement concluded with an appeal “to the masses of our Ummah and all the free people of the world to raise their voices loudly against these ongoing crimes, and to exert pressure to take effective stances that put an end to this fascist aggression”.
The violence continues amid stalled ceasefire negotiations. Israel resumed its offensive on Gaza in March after a brief pause, following the initial campaign that began in October 2023 after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
So far nearly 51,000 civilians have been killed in Israel’s Gaza aggression, including nearly 1,500 killed since March 18th 2025.
