2 children reported killed in Gaza strikes; IDF said to target terror operatives
Strike on tent encampment in Khan Younis kills 20-year-old man and 8-year-old girl; strike on home in Bureij refugee camp kills 18-month-old and wounding at least 8
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At least four people, including an 8-year-old girl and a 18-month old child, were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip Thursday morning, according to Hamas-affiliated Palestinian media outlets in Gaza.
The IDF did not immediately comment on any of the incidents, but an Israeli security official told The Times of Israel that the strikes were directed at terror operatives.
The reports on the latest deaths, citing medical officials, said an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave, killed a 20-year-old man and an 8-year-old girl. In the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, an airstrike hit a house killing an 18-month-old baby and wounding at least eight people, medics said.
Another Israeli strike targeted a Palestinian man on a bike near a tent encampment housing displaced families in Gaza City, killing one person and wounding 10, medics added.
The Israeli military says it only targets terror operatives in its strikes, but that these fighters often operate from within the civilian population.
Meanwhile, the IDF announced that a Hamas sniper commander and a terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught were killed in separate strikes in Gaza earlier this week.
Child Zaid Nawfal was killed in an Israeli strike that targeted his family's home in the central Gaza Strip last night. With Zaid's death, his mother has now lost all four of her sons during the war, after losing her other three sons at the beginning of the war . pic.twitter.com/4KSfuGmWRC
— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) July 30, 2026
One strike on Monday in southern Gaza killed Ahmad Hisham Mahmoud Louh, commander of a sniper cell in Hamas’s Nuseirat Battalion, according to the IDF.
The IDF said a separate strike on Monday in northern Gaza killed Mahmoud Ali Mahmoud Taroush, a platoon commander in Hamas’s military wing, who invaded Israel on October 7.
The military said the two terror operatives were planning attacks on troops and Israeli civilians.
צה"ל חיסל ראש חוליית צליפה בגדוד נוציראת של ארגון הטרור חמאס ומחבל שפשט לשטח מדינת ישראל ב-7 באוקטובר
צה"ל תקף בדרום רצועת עזה מוקדם יותר השבוע, וחיסל את אחמד השאם מחמוד לוח, ראש חוליית צליפה בגדוד נוציראת של ארגון הטרור חמאס.
מחמוד לוח פעל כראש חוליית הצליפה האחרון בגדוד… pic.twitter.com/JmJiTczIvV
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 30, 2026
“The terrorists posed a threat to the troops and were eliminated in precise aerial strikes,” the IDF said.
Later Thursday, the IDF announced that it bombed another four Hamas weapon depots across the Gaza Strip the previous night.
The IDF said the strikes destroyed sites where assault rifles, explosive devices, anti-tank missile launchers, and other equipment were stored by Hamas.
The weapons were intended to be used in attacks on Israeli troops in Gaza and Israeli civilians, and the sites were struck “to remove the threat,” the army said.
במהלך הלילה: צה”ל ושב"כ השמידו ארבעה מחסני אמצעי לחימה של ארגון הטרור חמאס ברצועת עזה
צה״ל ושב"כ תקפו במהלך הלילה במספר מרחבים ברחבי רצועת עזה, והשמידו ארבעה מחסני אמצעי לחימה של ארגון הטרור חמאס, בהם אוחסנו רובי קלצ׳ניקוב, מטעני נפץ, משגרי נ״ט, תחמושת וציוד צבאי נוסף.
אמצעי… pic.twitter.com/FDXDXfPaCz
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 30, 2026
The fragile ceasefire deal in October 2025 attempted to halt a two-year-long war between Israel and Hamas that began when the Palestinian terror group led a murderous invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The heaviest fighting has subsided, but at least 1,100 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and fighters but claims women and children make up most of the dead.
Gunmen have still carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to those and other violations. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.
The Times of Israel Community.