IDF says it struck Hamas naval police HQ, 3 weapons depots in Gaza

The Israeli Air Force bombed the main headquarters of Hamas’s naval police in the Gaza Strip earlier this week, the military announces.

According to the IDF, the airstrike on Sunday in the Khan Younis area killed several terror operatives, including Ismail al-Lahham, a cell commander in Hamas’s military wing.

The military says Hamas’s naval police “operates under the authority of Hamas’s military wing, and works to advance, direct, and carry out terror attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel.”

“At the headquarters that was struck, Hamas conducted rehabilitation and force-building efforts, in violation of the ceasefire agreement and while exploiting infrastructure presented as civilian,” the IDF says.

In addition, the military says that last week it struck and destroyed three Hamas arms caches, where weapons intended to be used against troops were stored.

Before the strikes, and after the IDF issued warnings to residents of the area, the military says that it identified several Hamas operatives “who began attempting to remove the weapons at the warehouses using vehicles.”

“Following the identification, the IDF struck the terrorists and the weapons,” the military says.