Israel attacks 300 targets in Gaza, including Hamas tunnels and ‘hand-to-hand’ combat

An Israeli airstrike, part of the 300 attack targets in Gaza, killed a Hamas militia commander who founded the terrorist group’s paragliding unit used during the October 7 attack, a senior Israeli officer said.

The Israeli army reported this Tuesday that its forces have attacked about 300 targets in the Gaza Strip in recent hours, including underground military complexes of the Islamist group Hamas, which de facto controls the enclave.

Army officials confirmed that Nasim Abu Ajina, commander of the Beit Lahia battalion of Hamas’s Northern Brigade, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza on Monday evening. Footage shared by the Israeli military showed Israeli fighter jets attacking his home, showing a series of large explosions.

“Over the past day, the combined forces of the Israeli army have attacked approximately 300 targets, including hidden anti-tank missiles and rocket firing positions, as well as military complexes in underground tunnels owned by the terrorist organization Hamas,” the army said. A spokesperson said this in a statement.

The text also specified that “during the armed forces’ ground operations, the soldiers had several confrontations with terrorist cells that fired anti-tank missiles and machine guns at them.”

Therefore, the troops “killed the terrorists and ordered the air force to attack terrorist targets and infrastructure in real time.”

Shortly afterwards, the army announced that its fighter jets had bombed the command center of the Beit Lahia battalion in northern Gaza and killed Nasim Abu Ajina, one of the commanders of the Hamas attack on Israeli territory last September 7.

Abu Ajina, a military statement added, had also commanded the Islamic group’s aerial apparatus, including the production of drones.

Since expanding its ground operations in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has advanced towards Gaza City, reaching the outskirts of the city this Monday, as EFE was able to verify.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday referred to the advance of troops on the ground, which he said “is happening in measured but strong steps, making systematic progress.”

The war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7 with the Palestinian Islamist group’s attack on Israeli territory, killing 1,400, wounding more than 5,400 and transferring 239 hostages to Gaza.

Since then, the Israeli army has bombed Gaza in retaliation and expanded ground operations on Friday, killing more than 8,300 and wounding more than 21,000.

Panic over hospital bombings

An Israeli army spokesman argued today that Hamas has been using the facilities of Gaza’s main hospital, Shifa, for military purposes “for years”, in response to criticism from the UN and the World Health Organization (WHO) over bombings near Gaza . these infrastructures.

“We are aware of Hamas military facilities directly underneath the hospital,” Israeli Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said during a telematics press conference for the UN-accredited press in Geneva.

The use of civilian facilities such as the hospital for military purposes should be condemned by WHO, the spokesperson added, adding: “We are concerned about the patients treated there as such use puts them at risk.”

The headquarters of the terrorist organization Hamas is located beneath Gaza’s main hospital, Israeli intelligence charges

Conricus assured that the Israeli forces are sticking to their strategy of “attacking wherever there is a military objective and where a senior Hamas commander is present, giving priority to northern Gaza and the capital.”

Regarding criticism of humanitarian organizations for not allowing fuel access to Gaza, the spokesperson assured that “Hamas is stockpiling fuel and water for its own purposes, and is the one denying that there is a flow of humanitarian goods.”

The spokesperson pointed out that Hamas uses that fuel in this sense to power the electricity supply and ventilation of the underground tunnels through which it operates in Gaza, to hide from Israeli forces.

“The war will continue until we can dismantle Hamas and return security to our communities near the Gaza Strip,” the military source concluded. (JO)