GAZA CITY: Arriving in the deadly aftermath of an Israeli strike in northern Gaza last week, rescuer Nooh Al-Shaghnobi risked his life to aid the wounded despite warnings of another imminent attack.
In a video that has since gone viral on social media, civil defense member Shaghnobi can be seen desperately trying to pull a wounded man out from under a mound of rubble after a strike on a school on Thursday.
As he was working, a fresh evacuation order was issued by the Israeli military, warning of another strike on the same site, a school sheltering displaced people from across the territory.
“The scene was terrifying” as people fled the building, Shaghnobi told AFP, referring to the Dar Al-Arqam school which Gaza’s civil defense said served as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war.
“I became anxious, and the injured person grew even more distressed,” he said.
“I tried to calm him down, telling him, ‘I will stay with you until your last breath. We will die together if we must.’“
Shaghnobi said he dug with his bare hands through the debris to reach the wounded man’s leg which was pinned under concrete.
“He kept calling out: ‘Why did you come back, man? Leave me to die. Get out.’“
Shaghnobi said at one point the pair were the only people left in the building as Israeli reconnaissance drones flew overhead.
“I kept trying to pull him out, but I couldn’t. I said to myself: ‘This is the moment we die.’“
It was then that one of Shaghnobi’s colleagues rushed over, warning that they had just 10 minutes to save anyone still alive before another strike hit.
Together they pulled with all their strength until the man’s leg was freed.
“In that moment, my eyes welled up with tears, my body shaking from exhaustion,” he said.
While initially hesitant, Shaghnobi’s other colleagues arrived to help carry the wounded man to safety.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said at least 31 people, including children, were killed in last Thursday’s strike on the school in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, northeast of Gaza City.
Since the Gaza war began after Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge in schools and other facilities in a bid to escape the deadly violence.
Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once since the war started.
On Wednesday, a strike on a residential block in Gaza City that housed many displaced people killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 60, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency.
The Israeli military said it had targeted a “senior Hamas terrorist” in the attack.
Gaza rescuer risks life to save victim of Israel strike
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Gaza rescuer risks life to save victim of Israel strike
- In a video, civil defense member Shaghnobi can be seen desperately trying to pull wounded man out from under a mound of rubble after a strike on a school on Thursday
Hamas to hold leadership elections in coming months: sources
- A Hamas member in Gaza said Hayya is a strong contender due to his relations with other Palestinian factions, including rival Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority, as well as his regional standing
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas is preparing to hold internal elections to rebuild its leadership following Israel’s killing of several of the group’s top figures during the war in Gaza, sources in the movement said on Monday.
“Internal preparations are still ongoing in order to hold the elections at the appropriate time in areas where conditions on the ground allow it,” a Hamas leader told AFP.
The vote is expected to take place “in the first months of 2026.”
Much of the group’s top leadership has been decimated during the war, which was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel in October 2023.
The war has also devastated the Gaza Strip, leaving its more than two million residents in dire humanitarian conditions.
The leadership renewal process includes the formation of a new 50-member Shoura Council, a consultative body dominated by religious figures.
Its members are selected every four years by Hamas’ three branches: the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and the movement’s external leadership.
Hamas prisoners in Israeli prisons are also eligible to vote.
During previous elections, held before the war, members across Gaza and the West Bank used to gather at different locations including mosques to choose the Shoura Council.
That council is responsible, every four years, for electing the 18-member political bureau and its chief, who serves as Hamas’s overall leader.
Another Hamas source close to the process said the timing of the political bureau elections remains uncertain “given the circumstances our people are going through.”
After Israel killed former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July 2024, the group chose its then-Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar as his successor.
Israel accused Sinwar of masterminding the October 7 attack.
He too was killed by Israeli forces in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, three months after Haniyeh’s assassination.
Hamas then opted for an interim five-member leadership committee based in Qatar, postponing the appointment of a single leader until elections are held and given the risk of being targeted by Israel.
According to sources, two figures have now emerged as frontrunners to be the head of the political bureau: Khalil Al-Hayya and Khaled Meshaal.
Hayya, 65, a Gaza native and Hamas’s chief negotiator in ceasefire talks, has held senior roles since at least 2006, according to the US-based NGO the Counter-Extremism Project (CEP).
Meshaal, who led the Political Bureau from 2004 to 2017, has never lived in Gaza. He was born in the West Bank in 1956.
He joined Hamas in Kuwait and later lived in Jordan, Syria and Qatar. The CEP says he oversaw Hamas’s evolution into a political-military hybrid.
He currently heads the movement’s diaspora office.
A Hamas member in Gaza said Hayya is a strong contender due to his relations with other Palestinian factions, including rival Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority, as well as his regional standing.
Hayya also enjoys backing from both the Shoura Council and Hamas’s military wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades.
Another source said other potential candidates include West Bank Hamas leader Zaher Jabarin and Shoura Council head Nizar Awadallah.
