The Daily Populous Monday July 7th, 2025 day edition
Authored by bbc.com and submitted by paulfromatlanta

IDF says it killed Hamas commander in cafe strike that killed dozens of civilians

Saleh was a "significant source of knowledge" within Hamas and had been involved in planning and advancing "maritime terrorist attacks", the IDF said.

In a statement on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike killed Ramzi Ramadan Abd Ali Saleh, along with Hisham Ayman Atiya Mansour, deputy head of Hamas's mortar unit, and Nissim Muhammad Suleiman Abu Sabha.

After the attack on the popular al-Baqa cafe in Gaza City on Monday, family members in Gaza and abroad told the BBC of their shock at the scale of civilian casualties.

Israeli forces say they killed the commander of Hamas's naval force in northern Gaza in a strike on a seaside cafe in which dozens of civilians were killed.

Sources in Gaza had previously told the BBC a senior Hamas commander was rumoured to have been at the cafe at the time of the strike.

The IDF also said it had taken steps "to mitigate the risk of harming civilians" but did not provide any further details as to why so many people were killed in the incident.

The BBC has reviewed 29 names of people reported killed in the strike on the cafe, at least nine of whom were women, while several were children and teenagers.

Those killed included artists, students, social activists, a female boxer, a footballer and cafe staff.

Staff at Shifa Hospital, which received bodies from the attack, said its toll as of Thursday had reached 40 dead, including people who had succumbed to their injuries, and unidentified bodies.

An official at the hospital said some of the bodies had been "blown to pieces", and that 72 injured patients were brought there - many having sustained severe burns and significant injuries that required surgery.

The al-Baqa Cafeteria was well-known across the Gaza Strip, and considered by many to be among the territory's most scenic and vibrant meeting spots.

It had remained popular even during the war, especially due to its unusually stable internet connection.

The IDF did not directly respond to multiple BBC questions about whether it considered the number of civilian casualties to be proportionate.

In its statement on Sunday it said it would "continue to operate against the Hamas terrorist organization in order to remove any threat posed to Israeli civilians", before saying the "incident" was "under review".

Meanwhile, indirect talks between Israel and Hamas began in Qatar on Sunday to discuss the latest proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,338 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

UrchinJoe on July 7th, 2025 at 05:40 UTC »

"The end cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced" - Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means, 1937.

I won't grieve for a Hamas commander, but killing dozens of civilians to meet a military objective is an evil act, and won't lead to a better world for any of us.

UnnamedStaplesDrone on July 7th, 2025 at 03:02 UTC »

"that was a risk we were willing to take"

nnefariousjack on July 6th, 2025 at 22:36 UTC »

Is this the cafe they decided to blow up just the other day they got called out for?