IAF fighter jets carried out a precision strike on a Hamas terror compound inside an UNRWA school in the Nuseirat area of central Gaza overnight Wednesday, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Several terrorists were killed in the strike, who the IDF said were planning to carry out imminent terrorist attacks against Israeli forces.
The Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives in the compound, including members of Hamas’s Nukhba force who participated in the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre, directed attacks from the school while “exploiting it and using it as a shelter,” the army said.
An estimated 20 to 30 terrorists were gathered at the U.N. school when it was struck, the IDF later clarified, adding that the terrorists were located in three classrooms separate from an area where civilians were sheltering and that the strike was delayed twice to avoid harming civilians.
The facility was surveilled from the air and other intelligence was gathered prior to the strike to minimize the risk to noncombatants, according to the IDF.
Hamas claimed that at least 27 people were killed in the strike, calling it a “massacre.”
Israel released an infographic showing where the terrorists were operating in the school complex.
