IDF topples Hamas high-rise terror post in Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces ramped up its offensive in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, toppling a high-rise building in Gaza City used by the Hamas terrorist organization, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.

“Hamas terrorists had installed intelligence-gathering equipment in the building and established observation posts to monitor the location of IDF forces in the area,” the statement read.

The military noted that Hamas also planted numerous explosive devices near the building as part of its preparations for the IDF’s ground operation.

Moreover, Hamas built underground infrastructure near the building, “from which its operatives direct terrorist activity against our forces,” the IDF said.

The army emphasized that measures were taken in advance to minimize civilian casualty, among them issuing a prior evacuation warning, the use of precision munitions and aerial surveillance.

“The IDF will continue to operate with strength and determination against the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip,” the military said.

Footage coming out of the Strip apparently showed the aftermath of the strike, a site reduced to rubble.

Defense Minister Israel Katz posted a video of the strike on X, writing in Hebrew, “Continuing.”

On Friday, Katz uploaded a similar video of another high-rise building that the Israeli military tore down. “We started,” he wrote in Hebrew.

In an earlier tweet on the same day, the defense minister stated: “The bolt is now drawn back from the gates of hell in Gaza. The first evacuation notice is being delivered to a multi-story terror building in Gaza City ahead of a strike.

“Once the door is opened, it will not be closed, and the IDF’s operations will only intensify—until Hamas’s murderers and rapists accept Israel’s terms for ending the war, first and foremost the release of all hostages and disarmament—or are destroyed,” he said.

Katz was likely referencing comments made by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this year, threatening that the “gates of hell” could be unleashed on Gaza if Hamas did not release all the hostages.

Meanwhile, reports from Gaza said on Saturday that the terrorist who boasted to his parents about murdering 10 Jews during the Hamas-led massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, was killed two days ago in an airstrike.

Reports identified the man as Mahmoud Afana and said that he was slain in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.

Israel has not confirmed his death.

“Dad, I’m talking to you from a Jewish woman’s phone. I killed her, and I killed her husband. I killed 10 with my own hands!” the terrorist was heard saying in a recording the IDF released shortly after the massacre.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said that it now controlled roughly 40% of Gaza City after intensifying its ground offensive against Hamas.

Brig. Gen. Ephraim “Effie” Defrin, the IDF spokesperson, told reporters troops were pressing deeper into the enclave as part of the second phase of “Operation Gideon’s Chariots.” Tens of thousands of reservists had been mobilized as a “force multiplier” to expand the ground assault, he said.