Israel announced Sunday that it had killed the spokesman for the armed wing of the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as its army continued its offensive in the starved and war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

"We are now afraid of the night and of sleeping in our tents," said Iman Rajab, a Gaza resident, after intense Israeli raids that left at least 16 people dead on Sunday, according to the Civil Defense.

"Hamas terrorist spokesman Abu Obeida was eliminated in Gaza and joined the others eliminated from the axis of evil in Iran, Lebanon and Yemen in the depths of hell," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on his X account.

The Israeli army also reported the death of "Houdhayfa al-Kahlout, alias Abu Obeida."

Hamas, whose unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, triggered the war in Gaza, did not immediately respond to the announcement.

A spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades since 2002, Abu Obeida was one of the Hamas leaders to announce the October 7 attack in a video.

Since the start of the war, he has made dozens of televised speeches and published audio messages, as well as press releases and tweets on the movement's social media. He always appears in military uniform, his face covered by a keffiyeh.

A new wave of Israeli nighttime bombings has targeted several areas of the Gaza Strip, including the eponymous city against which the army is preparing to launch a major offensive to finish off Hamas.

At dawn on Sunday, smoke rose into the sky above Gaza City in the north of the territory, according to AFP images. Residents arrived to survey the damage in front of a destroyed tent, where bloodstained blankets were mixed with the rubble.

- "Horror" -

"We pray to God for the war to end because we are tired of displacement, we are afraid and we are hungry," Iman Rajab, who lives in a displacement camp targeted by a strike in the Maqousi district, told AFP.

"Horror, fear, and destruction. Fire broke out in all the tents, only God protected us from the fire," said Ashraf Abu Amsha, who lives in a tent further away.

In the morgue of Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital, relatives weep beside bodies lined up on the floor.

On Sunday, the Gaza Civil Defense reported 16 people killed during Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territory, including 10 near aid distribution sites.

Asked by AFP, the Israeli army said it was making inquiries, but stressed that it was very difficult to gather information without the time and precise coordinates of the reported events.

Given the restrictions imposed on the media in Gaza and the difficulties of access on the ground, AFP is unable to independently verify the reports and information from the various parties.

According to the UN, the vast majority of residents have been displaced multiple times by the war in Gaza, where the approximately two million inhabitants have been besieged by Israel for nearly 23 months.

The UN has declared famine in the small, poor territory, but Israel denies it.

In an attempt to "break the illegal blockade of Gaza," according to its organizers, a flotilla of dozens of boats loaded with humanitarian aid, led in particular by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, was due to set sail from Barcelona on Sunday.

- Flight of the inhabitants -

On Saturday, the International Red Cross warned of a mass evacuation of the population of Gaza City, after the army deemed such an evacuation "inevitable" in anticipation of its offensive.

Thousands of residents have already fled the city. According to the UN, nearly one million people live in the Gaza governorate, including the city and its surrounding areas.

With the announced offensive on Gaza City, Mr. Netanyahu and his far-right allies say they want to finish off Hamas and bring back the hostages still held in Gaza.

Hamas confirmed on Sunday the death of one of its leaders, Mohammed Sinwar, three months after the Israeli army announced it had killed him in a strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 47 remain in Gaza, 25 of whom have been declared dead by the Israeli army.

The Israeli reprisal campaign has left at least 63,459 dead in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry.