Israel Strikes Hamas Command Center Located in Gaza City School

Jerusalem, 18 September, 2024 (TPS) -- Israeli aircraft struck a Hamas command and control center in a building formerly used as a school in the area of Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday.

According to the IDF, the building, which served as the Ibn Al-Haytam School, was being used by terror groups to plan and carry out attacks.

“This is a further example of the Hamas terrorist organization’s systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure in violation of international law,” the IDF said.

The IDF added that it stepped up aerial surveillance and used precision munitions to mitigate danger to civilians.

Earlier on Wednesday, the army said four soldiers were killed when they entered a booby-trapped building in Rafah. Among the four was the first female soldier to fall during Israel’s ground offensive against Hamas.

She was identified as Staff Sgt. Agam Naim, a 20-year-old paramedic with the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion, from the community of Mishmarot in north-central Israel.

The other three soldiers were identified as 23-year-old Cpt. Daniel Mimon Toaff, Staff Sgt. Amit Bakri and Staff Sgt. Dotan Shimon, both 21.

The four entered a booby-trapped building in Rafah’s Tel-Sultan neighborhood, where the army said entire blocks of buildings and tunnels are rigged with explosives. Five other soldiers were injured. The army is investigating the incident.

Numerous other female soldiers were killed on October 7, but Naim was the first killed during the ground offensive.

Since the launch of the ground war, 348 soldiers have been killed in Gaza.

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.