Israel says it killed Hamas commander who held 1,000 Gazans hostage in hospital

The Israel Defense Forces says it killed the Hamas commander reportedly responsible for using about 1,000 Gazans as human shields by holding them hostage at a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip.

"IDF aircraft just struck Ahmed Siam, responsible for holding approximately 1,000 Gazan residents and patients hostage at the Rantisi Hospital, and preventing their evacuation southward," the Israeli military said Saturday on X, formerly Twitter. 

"Siam was a commander in Hamas' Naser Radwan Company, and is another example of Hamas using civilians in Gaza as human shields for terrorist purposes," the IDF also said.

Israel started telling people to evacuate north Gaza days after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack that resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 people and the kidnappings of more than 240 others. 

However, Hamas, a U.S. State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization, has reportedly been refusing to let people leave the area for the south. Meanwhile, the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and terrorist casualties, said the death toll in the strip surpassed 10,000.

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