Israel Targets Hamas Chief's Father

Continuing its air assault on Hamas in the wake of the multi-pronged terror attacks, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it struck over 200 targets of the terrorist group in the Al Furkan neighbourhood of the besieged Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

As part of the ongoing counter-offensive against Hamas on Wednesday morning, the security forces also bombed the house of the father of Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas's military wing believed to be the key plotter of the terror attacks, The Times of Israel reported.

In what was its third aerial assault in the area, Israeli fighter jets struck 450 Hamas targets in the neighbourhood, the IDF posted on social media platform X.

"The IDF continues extensive waves of attacks in the Gaza Strip; dozens of Air Force fighter jets attacked over 200 targets in the Al Furkan neighbourhood for the third time in the past day This is the third attack in the area during the last day, in which the IDF attacked over 450 targets in the area of the neighbourhood," the IDF posted on X.

Meanwhile, as the war on Hamas entered its fifth day, the toll from the rocket and ambush attacks by the terror outfit in Israel mounted to over 1,000, with more than 2,700 injured and 50 confirmed missing or taken hostage, the IDF stated.

It informed further that over 4,500 rockets have been fired, so far, from Gaza.

Over 770 Palestinians have also been killed in the air raids as part of the ongoing counter-offensive, the Health Ministry of Gaza said, adding that another 4,000 have been injured. Among the dead are 140 children and 120 women, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry on Gaza said.

A day ago, in a stern warning to Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "though Israel did not start this war", it "will finish it".

"Israel is at war. We didn't want this war. It was forced upon us in the most brutal and savage way. But though Israel didn't start this war, Israel will finish it," said Netanyahu in an address to the nation.

Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, firing a barrage of rockets into the southern and central parts of the country combined with a ground assault on civilians.