Israeli Airstrike Targets Hamas Command Center in Gaza Mosque

Jerusalem, 10 September, 2024 (TPS) -- Israeli fighter jets struck a Hamas command and control center in a building formerly used as a mosque in central Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday.

According to the IDF, the building, formerly known as the Al Farouq mosque in the Bureij refugee camp, was being used by the terror group to plan and carry out attacks.

“The Hamas terrorist organization systematically violates international law, and operates from within civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip while exploiting the Gazan civilian population for its terrorist activities,” the IDF said.

The military stepped up aerial surveillance and used precision munitions to mitigate danger to civilians, the IDF added.

Earlier in the day, the army disclosed the identities of three senior Hamas figures targeted in an overnight airstrike while disputing Hamas’s claimed civilian death toll.

Israeli jets struck a Hamas command and control center embedded inside the Mawasi humanitarian zone in Khan Yunis. The strike targeted Samer Ismail Khader Abu Daqqa, the head of Hamas’s aerial forces; Osama Tabash, the head of surveillance and targets in Hamas’s intelligence division; and Ayman Mabouh, another senior Hamas officer.

“These terrorists were directly involved in the execution of the October 7th Massacre and have been recently operating to carry out terror activities against the IDF and the State of Israel,” the IDF said.

Throughout the war, Israel has struck numerous Hamas control centers, rocket launchers, weapons caches and other assets located inside Gaza’s humanitarian zones.

On Thursday, Israel disclosed that a booby-trapped tunnel leading to the bodies of six hostages was found beneath a children’s playroom in Rafah.

At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.