From the Liveblog of
Saturday, June 7, 2025
IDF says Islamic Jihad members targeted in hospital strike were ‘operating under the guise of journalists’
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The IDF publishes the identities of two Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives killed in an Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza City on Thursday, saying the pair were “operating under the guise of journalists.”
The strike on Thursday hit a press compound in the courtyard of the Al-Ma’amadani Hospital, also known as Al-Ahli, killing journalists Suleiman Hajaj, Samir al-Rifai, Ismail Badah, and Ahmed Qaljah, according to Palestinian media.
The IDF said Thursday that the compound was used by Islamic Jihad operatives to plan and carry out attacks on troops and Israeli civilians.
Hajaj, according to the IDF, was a deputy commander of an Islamic Jihad engineering cell, and al-Rifai was also a member of the terror group. The military does not comment on the other two reported fatalities.
????ELIMINATED: Two Islamic Jihad terrorists who posed as journalists and operated from a command center in the courtyard of the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza.
The terrorists exploited the hospital to plan and execute terror activities against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.… pic.twitter.com/DbVxCHtQL0
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 7, 2025
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