An Israeli airstrike on a Gaza hospital killed a senior member of Hamas’s political bureau Sunday night as the military moved to expand its renewed offensive across the Strip.

Israel said it used precision weaponry to target and kill Ismail Barhoum at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, referring to him as a “key Hamas terrorist,” as the Palestinian terror group confirmed his death and said he had been undergoing treatment for injuries sustained in a previous strike.

The strike was one of dozens reported across the territory Sunday and into the early morning hours of Monday, with a separate strike in the Khan Younis area reportedly killing a senior Hamas education official.

The Israel Defense Forces also indicated it was preparing to expand ground operations, redeploying an armored division that had been stationed on the border with Lebanon.

Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the widening of the offensive in a statement hailing the killing of Barhoum.

He described the Hamas official, a member of the terror group’s political bureau previously involved in financing its activities, as “the new Hamas prime minister in Gaza, who replaced Issam Da’alis, the previous prime minister who was eliminated a few days ago.”

He was at least the fourth member of Hamas’s political bureau killed since Tuesday, when Israel resumed airstrikes in the territory after an impasse over continuing a ceasefire. Earlier Sunday, an Israeli airstrike near Khan Younis killed Salah al-Bardawil, another senior member of its political bureau.

Out of the 20 members of Hamas’s political bureau elected in 2021, 11 have been assassinated during the war in Gaza. Seven are either certain or highly likely to be outside the Gaza Strip.

The IDF said the strike was carried out following “an extensive intelligence-gathering process,” and that a “precision munition” was used to mitigate harm to civilians.

The attack was caught on camera by both Al Jazeera and BBC Arabic.

Footage from the scene following the blast showed that the hospital building was largely undamaged in the strike, except for fire blazing in one section off a stairwell.

Palestinian health officials claimed the attack killed two people — Barhoum and a 16-year-old boy who had recently undergone surgery.

Footage on social media appeared to show people extricating bodies and injured people from the rubble.

“The Hamas terrorist organization exploits civilian infrastructure while brutally endangering the Gazan population. The cynical use of an active hospital as a shelter for the planning and executing of murderous........

© The Times of Israel