An Israeli truck driver was lightly injured by a rocket impact near Kibbutz Re’ím on Monday, as terrorists in the Gaza Strip launched a barrage at southern Israel.
The barrage of some 15 rockets fired from the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza was the latest in a series of attacks, bringing the total number of rockets fired at Israel from the Strip since Friday to around 40.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, several of the 15 rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome, but others impacted the Re’im and Gama Junction area.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it was taking a man aged 37, a truck driver, to a hospital in good condition after he was hurt by a rocket impact near Re’im.
On Sunday, following the repeated rocket attacks on Israel from Khan Younis, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for the area, saying that it would “forcefully operate” against terror groups there.
On Monday, the IDF said it had killed Hamas’s economy minister in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip a day earlier.
According to the IDF, Abd al-Fattah al-Zari’i also served as an operative in Hamas’s manufacturing division.
The IDF said the manufacturing division works to “increase Hamas’s weapons capabilities, including by exchanging information with other terror organizations across the Middle East.”
Al-Zari’i, according to the IDF, also played a “significant role in directing Hamas’s efforts to seize control of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip” as well as managing Hamas-controlled markets.
Additionally, he was responsible for the distribution of fuel, gas, and funds for “terror activities,” the military added.
Palestinian media reported that the strike killed al-Zari’i took place in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, and his mother was also killed in the attack.
Palestinian media outlets on Monday morning reported that more than 80 bodies were returned by Israeli authorities to the Gaza Strip.
Amid the war in Gaza, the IDF has taken for identification bodies suspected of being those of hostages, returning them after confirming they do not belong to any captives that were abducted by Hamas on October 7.
At least 39 of the remaining 111 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 have been confirmed dead.
The war in Gaza was sparked when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7 to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 39,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far. The toll, which cannot be independently verified, does not distinguish between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed about 15,000 combatants in battle as of May, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists killed inside Israel during the October 7 attack.