World

Israel targets Hamas commander it says planned attacks

By AAP Newswire

Aug 13, 2026

Gaza City — Witnesses say a man on a rickshaw in the northern Gaza Strip was wounded in an Israeli attack. -EPA

An Israeli air strike has critically wounded a Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip, in ‌an attack the Israeli military says targeted a Hamas commander planning ‌attacks against Israeli troops operating in the territory.

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It was the ‌first such air strike in over a week, after Israel scaled back major attacks under US pressure to implement the latest iteration of President Donald Trump's plan to end the ‌war in the enclave.

Palestinian ‌medics ⁠and witnesses said the man who was wounded was riding on a rickshaw in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the man targeted was hit in an aerial strike ⁠in order to remove ‌the threat to Israeli military troops.

It added that its forces would remain deployed in ‌the area under the Southern Command in accordance with the agreement and would continue operations against immediate threats.

Israeli fire has killed more than 1250 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, since a US-backed ceasefire halted two ‌years of full-scale war in October.

It is unclear how many of those killed might be militants since Hamas does not usually disclose information about dead fighters.

Four Israeli soldiers were killed by militants in the strip over the same period, according to ⁠an Israeli tally.