Three reported killed in IDF strike targeting Hamas terrorist at Gaza university
Military says it diverted strike when uninvolved bystanders were identified in area; unclear if target is among those killed
Three Palestinians were reportedly killed in an Israeli strike that the military said targeted a Hamas military wing operative at the Islamic University in Gaza City on Sunday.
Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said it received three bodies and treated eight people who were wounded in the strike, and two sources at the Islamic University said those killed were administrative staff and the injured were students.
Palestinian media identified the dead as Ashraf Dahlan, Shadi Abu Ataya, and Sami Baroud.
In response to a query by The Times of Israel, the IDF said it launched the strike on a Hamas military wing operative.
“Following the identification of uninvolved individuals in the area, the munition was diverted to minimize harm to them,” the IDF said.
It was unclear if the target of the strike was among the dead.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Education Ministry condemned the strike and said that “the global silence regarding attacks on students and universities serves as encouragement for the continuation of these crimes.”
“This strike occurs at a time when the higher education sector is facing total annihilation, with 95 percent of the buildings belonging to academic institutions having been damaged as a result of the war,” it continued.
“This heinous assault is part of a continuous series of attacks on education; over the past six days, 10 students and educators have been killed by the occupation’s fire.”
Mahmoud Bassal, the spokesman for the Hamas-run Civil Defense agency, said five other people were killed in Israeli strikes on Sunday, three near the southern city of Khan Yunis, one in central Deir al Balah and one northwest of Gaza City.
Meanwhile, the military on Sunday announced that it had killed two terror operatives involved in funneling millions of shekels to Hamas in strikes in the Gaza Strip last week.
The IDF said one strike on Wednesday in Gaza City killed Alaa Ibrahim Nimer Arshi, a cell commander in Hamas’s military wing, and a strike on Tuesday in Nuseirat killed Karam Riyad Hassan Abu Butaihan, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative.
Both operatives were involved in transferring millions of shekels from Iran and Turkey to Hamas’s military wing, according to the military.
“Recently, these funds helped the organization in its attempts to rebuild its military capabilities and advance terror attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians, in systematic violation of the ceasefire,” the military said, adding that the “terrorists were killed in airstrikes to eliminate the threat.”
Separately, the IDF said it bombed three Hamas weapon depots in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday.
The sites had been used by Hamas to store various weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles, rockets, and a rocket launcher, the military added.
The strikes came as Israel in recent months has increasingly targeted terror operatives in Gaza, including numerous terrorists who took part in the Hamas-led October 7 atrocities, saying they posed a threat to Israeli forces.
According to the military, many of the recent strikes focused on Hamas operatives involved in building up the terror group’s force, as well as secret headquarters and Hamas’s civil control mechanisms in the Strip.
Hamas reportedly told a UN official earlier this month that it was prepared to carry out an October 7-style attack in Israel, the West Bank or abroad, following the IDF’s expansion past the Gaza ceasefire line and the Palestinian Authority’s cancellation of legislative elections in November.
Meanwhile, implementation of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza has stalled, with Hamas refusing to disarm and Israel refusing to withdraw from any part of Gaza until that condition is met.
AFP contributed to this report.