Israel bombs Hamas leader’s home in Gaza

Israel bombed the Hamas leader’s home in Gaza on May 16, hours before a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. But the leader’s whereabouts are unknown.

The fate of Hamas leader Yahya Sinouar is not known. The Israeli army tweeted that it “attacked the home of Yahya Sinouar and his brother (a terrorist militant),” and posted a video showing a house shattered in a cloud of dust.

Witnesses confirmed to AFP that the target of the attack was none other than the home of Yahya Shinur. He was re-elected as chairman of Hamas’ political bureau in Gaza in March this year. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave of 2 million people, has been blockaded by Israel for more than a decade.

Israel also bombed a 13-story office building housing Al Jazeera and the Associated Press in Gaza yesterday, with no casualties because the building’s owners were notified in advance.

The Israeli military said the building housed Hamas “military intelligence entities” and accused Hamas of using civilians as “human shields” for itself.

Israel also bombed a network of tunnels in Gaza yesterday in an attempt to cut off the movement of Islamic fighters and leaders. But Gaza’s Islamist forces continued to fire a barrage of rockets into southern Israel. The Israeli army said some of the rockets fired by Palestinians did not fly far and fell into Gaza.