IDF says strike targeted Hamas, Islamic Jihad terrorists in north Gaza command center
Hamas-run civil defense says at least 25 dead in IDF strikes across Strip; Israel’s Foreign Ministry blasts UK-France-Germany call for resumed aid, says ‘no shortage of aid in Gaza’
The IDF and Shin Bet said Thursday an airstrike in northern Gaza’s Jabalia targeted a group of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives at a command center used by the terror groups.
Palestinian media reported that the strike targeted Jabalia’s former police station, and that at least nine people were killed.
According to the IDF, the site was used by the terror operatives to plan and carry out attacks on Israeli civilians and troops.
The IDF said it had taken steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike, including the use of a “precision munition, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence.”
“The terror organizations systematically violate international law while taking over civilian infrastructure, and while brutally exploiting the civilian population as a human shield for its terror attacks,” the military added.
The Hamas-run Gaza civil defense agency and Palestinian medics said that Israeli air strikes killed at least 25 people on Thursday, including a family of six whose home was struck in Gaza City.
The numbers cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and terror operatives.
Nidal al-Sarafiti, a relative of the family, said the strike was carried out when the family was sleeping.
“What can I say? The destruction has spared no one,” he told AFP.
Elsewhere, five people were said to have died when the tents they had sought refuge in were hit.
Three people were killed, including a child, in the town of Zuwaida in central Gaza, the civil defense said in a statement.
Another two people were reported killed in a strike on a home in the southern city of Khan Younis.
“We were sitting in peace when the missile fell.. I just don’t understand … what’s happening,” said Mohammed Faris, who said he witnessed the strike on the house.
Foreign Ministry blasts UK, France, Germany
The strikes came as Israel continued to take military action against Hamas and deny the entry of aid into the Strip in a bid to pressure the terror group into reaching a deal to release hostages.
Late Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry responded to a joint statement by the United Kingdom, France, and Germany condemning Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza, in a press release shared by the ministry’s spokesman, calling the statement “ethically outrageous.”
“Israel is fighting Hamas, which steals humanitarian aid, uses it to rebuild its war machine, and hides behind civilians,” the Foreign Ministry said, adding that it “categorically reject[s] the claim of ‘politicization of humanitarian aid’ as stated in the E3’s statement.”
In the statement, the three nations’ foreign ministers called for the immediate resumption of aid deliveries to the Strip and criticized recent comments on the issue by Defense Minister Israel Katz. They also called for Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza, for Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, and for all parties to return to a ceasefire.
“Article 70 of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions requires aid when ‘the civilian population is not adequately supplied,’” the statement from the Foreign Ministry added. “During the 42-day ceasefire, 25,000 aid trucks entered Gaza. Israel is monitoring the situation on the ground, and there is no shortage of aid in Gaza.”
“According to Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, a side is not obliged to allow in aid if it is ‘likely to assist the military or economic efforts of the enemy.’ Hamas hijacked the humanitarian aid to rebuild its terror machine,” the ministry further stated.
Instead of mentioning that “Hamas is the one targeting Israeli civilians while hiding behind Palestinian civilians,” the three countries “chose to accuse Israel of strikes on humanitarian personnel and healthcare facilities — this is morally twisted and wrong,” the press release said.
The Foreign Ministry asserted that the IDF “conducts thorough and transparent investigations” in cases involving civilian casualties, and says that “all condemnations should be directed at Hamas, which hides in hospitals and behind civilians.”
“The so-called balance the E3 statement is trying to create between Israel and Hamas is ethically outrageous,” the response went on, saying that the countries mention “only in passing the fact that Hamas still holds 59 hostages in inhumane conditions underground.”
“The war can end tomorrow if the hostages are released and Hamas lays down its weapons,” the ministry said.
The war began with the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion that killed over 1,200 people and saw the kidnapping of 251 hostages back to Gaza. Fifty-nine of the 251 taken as hostages remain in captivity, of whom 24 are believed to still be alive.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, more than 51,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far. The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel assesses it has killed about 20,000 combatants in Gaza as of January, as well as some 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.
Israel’s toll in the Gaza ground offensive and military operations along the border stands at 410.
The Times of Israel Community.