The Israeli military killed a Hamas leader in a strike that hit Gaza on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said it was targeting "a very senior Hamas commander" in the area of Jabalia who was later identified as Ibrahim Biari.
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"A short while ago, IDF fighter jets, acting on ISA intelligence, killed Ibrahim Biari, the Commander of Hamas' Central Jabaliya Battalion. Biari was one of the leaders responsible for sending 'Nukbha' terrorist operatives to Israel to carry out the murderous terror attack on October 7th. Numerous Hamas terrorists were hit in the strike," the IDF said in a statement.
The military also said other terrorists were killed in the airstrike, while Palestinian authorities estimated that 50 people were killed in the strike and the subsequent infrastructure collapse, while more were injured.
IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht described the civilian death toll as a "tragedy of war" in an interview on CNN.
"Since the entry of IDF forces into the Gaza Strip, Ebrahim Biari has managed the entire fighting in the northern Gaza Strip," IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said. "The assassination was carried out as part of an extensive attack by terrorists and terrorist infrastructures of the Central Jabaliya Battalion, which took over civilian buildings in Gaza City. The attack severely damaged the command and control of the sector and the direction of terrorist activity against the IDF forces operating in the Gaza Strip. As part of the attack, many Hamas terrorists were killed."
The IDF said he had been involved in multiple attacks in Israel going back decades.
Israel has launched thousands of airstrikes into Gaza since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians, including women and children. There has been overwhelming damage done to Gaza's infrastructure, with more than a million Palestinians having been displaced from their homes, while hospitals are overwhelmed and underresourced.
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The U.S. has repeatedly and publicly urged Israel to take steps to avoid civilian casualties even though Hamas intentionally embeds itself within dense civilian populations to make Israel's efforts more difficult. U.S. officials have said they haven't seen indications Israel is targeting Palestinian civilians.
"I can't speak to individual Israeli strikes. I've seen the press reports on that. I don't have any information on that," Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters. "You heard Secretary Austin say today that taking civilian safety into account is both a moral and a strategic obligation. And we do care about civilian casualties, and we've made it both clear publicly and privately about our concern for the protection of innocent light and life and the respect for the law of war, and that's not going to change."