The central region of the Gaza Strip witnessed a sudden escalation from dawn on Wednesday that lasted until the evening hours, following a series of intensive Israeli operations that targeted various locations and included the assassination of a prominent field operative in the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

The series of raids began with an Israeli helicopter targeting a residential apartment in central Deir al-Balah in the central Strip, which led to the death of Al-Qassam Brigades operative Omar Abu Qassim, his wife, and their child, while another child survived as the only remaining member of the family after the apartment was bombed.

Field sources speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat confirmed that Abu Qassim was the head of the sniper unit in the Deir al-Balah battalion. This was also stated by the Israeli army in a statement on Thursday, although it alleged that Abu Qassim 'was planning a series of attacks and working to rehabilitate the battalions' infrastructure.'

As night fell from Wednesday to Thursday, the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of a residential block including a wedding hall, where a Palestinian family was holding a celebration. The family was forced to stop the wedding due to the evacuation order for the area located at the entrance to the Maghazi camp in the central Strip, before warplanes destroyed a house at the site, causing damage to neighboring homes and the surrounding area.

Smoke rises from the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza following an Israeli military strike on Wednesday (AP).

Shortly after, the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of another residential block in central Deir al-Balah before targeting a residential apartment and causing severe damage to it. This was followed by the evacuation of a third residential block in the Nuseirat camp in the central Strip, where a house was destroyed, causing significant destruction in the area, followed by the bombing of another house in a fourth residential block that had been evacuated in the Bureij camp, also causing major destruction to the area.

The residents of the central Gaza Strip lived through a harrowing night due to those strikes and the large-scale displacement that occurred. With these strikes, Israel has bombed targets in all areas of the central Strip except for the town of Al-Zawayda.

The Israeli army stated in a press release on Thursday afternoon that the attacks aimed to destroy four weapons depots belonging to Hamas.

What is the secret behind the intensity of the attacks?

Two field sources revealed that the intensive strikes came just two days after members of an armed gang led by former Palestinian security officer Shawqi Abu Nassira kidnapped a prominent field operative in the Al-Qassam Brigades, a resident of Deir al-Balah, whose residential apartment was bombed on Wednesday in Deir al-Balah.

Armed gangs supported by Israel are active in areas under its control east of the 'Yellow Line,' which exceeds 60 percent of the area of Gaza, located east of the virtual Yellow Line defined within the ceasefire agreement announced last October, while Hamas controls the areas located west of that line.

0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 90%

Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts

00:00

00:00

00:00

The sources indicated that this operative is considered one of the brigade's key field figures and is familiar with many details related to Al-Qassam's capabilities and structure. He was kidnapped by militants who rammed his vehicle, causing him to fall to the ground, before they got out, claimed they would try to take him to the hospital, and put him into their vehicle before fleeing toward areas controlled by Israel and the armed gangs.

According to the sources' estimates, the kidnapped young man was handed over by the armed gangs to Israeli forces as is customary, and he was subjected to harsh torture, as is the case with Palestinian prisoners. Therefore, he may have been 'forced to provide information, some of it security-related, and other non-vital details such as the location of civilian homes bombed on Wednesday simply because they have sons active in resistance factions.'

Continuous Bombing and Assassinations

Throughout the dawn hours of Thursday, Israeli artillery, vehicles, and drones did not stop shelling and firing toward areas in the vicinity of the Dawla junction in the Zeitoun neighborhood on Salah al-Din Street. This forced dozens of families living in tents and some damaged homes in that area to flee in a scene that was particularly harsh for children, the elderly, and women, who left without any of their belongings under a hail of fire and fled into the depths of Gaza City.

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Nihad Arouq during his funeral ceremony after an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza port area on Thursday (DPA).

Israeli vehicles advanced toward that area in the Zeitoun neighborhood southeast of Gaza City, and brought forward the yellow cubes that signify the Yellow Line as a first withdrawal line defined within the ceasefire agreement.

The artillery shelling resulted in the death of one Palestinian citizen and the injury of several others. Concurrently, in the early hours of Thursday, a drone strike targeted two young men in the Al-Sanafor area in the Tuffah neighborhood east of Gaza City.

A few hours later, Israel assassinated a prominent Al-Qassam Brigades operative, Nihad Arouq, who had survived at least four assassination attempts that had led to the deaths of several of his relatives, after he was bombed in his tent on Al-Rashid coastal road near the Gaza port in the morning.

Palestinians retrieve some of their belongings from destroyed buildings the day after an Israeli airstrike on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza on Thursday (AP).

About 3 hours later, an Israeli drone bombed a vehicle in Al-Mawasi, Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, leading to the death of a prominent Al-Qassam Brigades field operative, Anas Hamdan, the military media official for Al-Qassam in the Khan Yunis Brigade and the son-in-law of Rafe Salameh, the former brigade commander whom Israel assassinated alongside Mohammed Deif last July. More than 1,130 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire went into effect on October 10, 2025.