Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: While US President Donald Trump ‘delays’ a peace deal with Tehran, pushing Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Pakistan to sign on the “Abraham Accords 2.0” and recognize Israel as a precondition for truce, the Jewish state continued to crush remnants of the Hamas terror group in Gaza City, and Hezbollah in Lebanon as it marched ahead to create a “Greater Israel.”
According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, at least 3,213 people have been killed, and 9,737 others have been wounded in relentless Israeli attacks since fighting resumed on March 2, 2026. This casualty surge followed escalating regional violence that began on February 28 when the US and Israel jointly launched aerial attacks on Iran.
The latest Israeli attack on Gaza comes after 31 people were killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to step up military action against the Iranian Shia proxy Hezbollah. Israel’s military said its attacks targeted Hezbollah infrastructure and fighters.
Isrrael hit a residential building in one of Gaza City’s busiest market areas on Tuesday, killing three persons, including Mohammed Odeh, the new commander of Hamas’s military wing, his wife and son, days after his predecessor died in a similar attack, as dozens more were wounded, the media reported.
Israel’s military and Shin Bet security service attacked buildings, that served as a hideout for Odeh after his movements were tracked for several months.
Despite the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreed in October 2025, violence in Gaza has continued on a near-daily basis.
In the latest attack, witnesses said, at least five missiles struck the building almost simultaneously from different directions.
A local Hamas source told the BBC on Tuesday that Odeh and his wife had been killed.
Their family said Odeh’s son died of his wounds in hospital on Wednesday morning and a funeral was held after noon prayers at a mosque in Gaza City.
Israel says…
An Israeli statement said: “As part of the joint operation by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet to eliminate the terrorist Mohammed Odeh, several buildings in the heart of Gaza City that served as a hideout for him were attacked, after months of intelligence surveillance in order to track his movements and the movements of his assistants in the organisation.”
They also struck “a nearby apartment belonging to a Hamas terrorist who had raided on October 7, 2023, and was part of Odeh’s circle of assistants”, referring to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Tuesday that Odeh was “one of the architects of the October 7 massacre.”
“Odeh was responsible for the murder, abduction, and wounding of many Israeli citizens and IDF soldiers.”
Odeh’s predecessor as commander of the group’s armed wing, Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, was killed in another Israeli air strike earlier in May. That attack also targeted a residential building and killed at least three people.
Israel has conducted regular strikes across Gaza despite a ceasefire, which began on October 10, 2025.
Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of breaching the terms of the ceasefire and attacking civilians. The Palestinian territory’s Hamas-run health ministry has reported the killing of more than 900 people in Israeli strikes during the US-brokered ceasefire.
Israel’s government maintains it has the licence to target Hamas members and has in turn accused the Sunni terror group of breaching the ceasefire agreement by failing to disarm.
The latter phases of the US-led peace plan for Gaza have yet to come into force, with progress stalling since the US and Israel started another war with Iran on February 28, 2026.
The US announced the start of the second phase of the plan in January, with governance of Gaza assumed by a transitional, technocratic administration alongside the demilitarisation and reconstruction of the territory.
However, talks on disarmament remain deadlocked, while Hamas has since reactivated its police force and appears to be reasserting its authority in the ruined Gaza Strip.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Israel was committed to preventing Hamas from governing Gaza “either civilly or militarily.”
He also said the “plan for voluntary emigration from Gaza” would be implemented “at the proper time and in the proper manner.”
In his statement, Netanyahu said Israel would “continue to pursue anyone who took part in the October 7 massacre,” adding: “Sooner or later, Israel will reach them all.”
About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led attack and 251 others were taken hostage during the October 7 attack on Southern Israel.
Israel responded by launching a massive military campaign in Gaza, which reduced much of the Palestinian territory to ruins and left many of its 2.1 million residents displaced.
Israeli forces have since killed more than 72,800 people in Gaza, according to its health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable.