The Israel Defense Forces carried out strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday in response to a failed projectile launch from the Gaza City area, the military said.
The IDF named several terrorists from Hamas who were targeted in the operation, two of whose deaths were confirmed.
The army said that it killed Kamal Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Awad, head of Hamas’s anti-tank missile array, and Ahmad Thabet, head of a workshop within a Hamas department and as a key source of knowledge in weapons manufacture.
Ahmad Abd al-Fattah Saeed Maghdalawi, a Nukhba Force terrorist in Hamas’s Nuseirat Battalion who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, including in the attack on the Supernova music festival, was also targeted. The IDF said it could not confirm whether he was killed.
In a strike in northern Gaza, the IDF eliminated four Hamas terrorists who operated from a command-and-control compound. “The terrorists operating from the site were planning to carry out an imminent terror attack against IDF forces operating in the northern Gaza Strip,” the army said.
In addition, the military struck eight launch-tunnel shafts, two weapon production facilities and three weapon storage facilities belonging to Hamas.
Terrorist targets of other terrorist organizations were also struck throughout Gaza, the IDF said.
“The elimination of these terrorists constitutes a significant degradation of Hamas’s and additional terrorist organizations’ operational capabilities and abilities to execute terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.
In a separate incident on Thursday, IDF troops operating in the Jabalia area located a launcher with two loaded rockets that were ready to be fired toward the State of Israel, the military said.
Meanwhile, an Israeli official told JNS that “Hamas has no choice but to disarm, and it will happen either the easy way or the hard way. The terror group committed to President Trump’s plan, which includes laying down their weapons. The policy is clear: The terror group will be disarmed one way or another.”
The official was referencing Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, according to which Hamas is supposed to renounce its ruling power over the Strip and disarm.
The IDF holds about 54% of the Strip, deployed to the east of the so-called Yellow Line that runs north-south through the enclave.
