An Israeli strike killed a senior official in charge of an ambulance service in the Gaza Strip, local health officials said on Monday, as Israel’s defense minister met senior U.S. officials in Washington to discuss a possible new phase of Israel’s offensive.
Gaza’s health ministry said the official, Hani Jafarawi, the head of Gaza’s ambulance and emergency services, was killed in an attack on a clinic in Gaza city.
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment. Earlier on Monday, the group said it killed another man, Muhammad Salah, in Gaza City on Sunday night, describing it as a Hamas operative. It was unclear whether the two men were killed in the same attack.
Hundreds of medical staff in Gaza have been killed in devastating Israeli bombings or in ground battles between Israeli forces and Hamas, according to the health ministry.
A meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant, CIA Director William J. Burns and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the Washington area on Monday comes as Israeli officials have signaled in recent days a possible shift in military operations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel’s fierce war against Hamas was “coming to an end”, although he made clear that Israel would not stop fighting in Gaza until Hamas was “annihilated” .
Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, also said on Sunday that Hamas militants were close to Israel’s invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah in May, following an Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack. be wiped out.
“We are clearly close to the point where we can say we have disbanded the Rafah Brigade,” General Halevi said, adding that the brigade “was defeated not because there were no more terrorists, but because it could no longer be eliminated.” terrorist”. as a combat unit. “
