An Israeli airstrike in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah on Thursday targeted a Hamas terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7 onslaught, the military said, as Palestinian media reported that 13 people were killed, including 8 women and children, in the strike.
The IDF said it was “aware of the claim about casualties in the area,” adding that the incident was being investigated.
“The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved [civilians] and acts as much as possible to minimize harm to them,” the military said in response to a query about the incident.
According to the Al-Rad channel, some of the casualties had been on their way to receive treatment at a nearby medical center when the strike hit.
Footage published by Gazan media showed the apparent moment of the strike, as several people walking past a shed are suddenly obscured in a thick cloud of smoke.
The footage could not be independently verified.
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said Thursday afternoon that at least 52 people were killed in Israeli strikes since morning. These tolls cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Civil defense official Mohammad al-Mughair told AFP that eight children and two women were among the dead following the strike in Deir al-Balah, adding Israeli aircraft targeted “a gathering of citizens in front of a medical point.”
Four people were killed and several injured in a predawn airstrike on a family home in Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza, Mughair added.
“Suddenly — and without warning — the house with people inside was bombed,” said Olfat Salim, inspecting the damage to her tent, which was ripped and covered in dust.
“We were sleeping and saw dust and stones falling on us. We started screaming to wake our children from under the rubble. Thank God we managed to get them out.”
In its daily update on the fighting, the military said over 180 targets were struck by the Israeli Air Force in the Gaza Strip over the previous day, including operatives, booby-trapped buildings, weapon depots, anti-tank launch posts, tunnels, and other infrastructure.
The strikes come as five IDF divisions, made up of tens of thousands of troops, continue to operate across Gaza.
In northern Gaza, the IDF says troops of the 401st Armored Brigade located several weapons and tunnel shafts used by Hamas. The troops also located a cell of Hamas operatives in a building and directed a drone strike against them, according to the IDF.
Similarly, the military said troops of the elite Multi-Domain Unit spotted a cell of Islamic Jihad operatives in a building and called in a drone strike.
On Wednesday, an IDF soldier was killed during a Hamas attempt to abduct him in southern Gaza, and a soldier with the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion was seriously wounded during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF said.
The soldier was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Giving a broader tally, the military said dozens of enemy operatives were killed and over 130 “terror infrastructures,” both above and below ground, were demolished by troops of the Golani Brigade during operations in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis in the past week.
Among the sites was a 500-meter-long, 13-meter-deep Hamas tunnel, the military says. It was destroyed by the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit.
Other sites included caches of weapons, booby-trapped buildings, observation posts, and mortar launching positions, the military said.
The war in Gaza was sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 57,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.