The Israeli military on Tuesday disclosed the identities of three senior Hamas figures targeted in an overnight airstrike while disputing Hamas’s claimed civilian death toll.
Israeli jets struck a Hamas command and control center embedded inside the Mawasi humanitarian zone in Khan Yunis overnight. The Israel Defense Forces said the three people targeted were Samer Ismail Khader Abu Daqqa, the head of Hamas’s aerial forces; Osama Tabash, the head of surveillance and targets in Hamas’s intelligence division; and Ayman Mabouh, another senior Hamas officer.
“These terrorists were directly involved in the execution of the October 7th Massacre and have been recently operating to carry out terror activities against the IDF and the State of Israel,” the IDF said.
The army said that continuous aerial surveillance in the hours leading up to the strike verified the presence of Daqqa, Tabash and Mabouh. It also disputed Hamas’s claim that 40 people were killed and another 60 were injured, numbers that have not been independently verified.
“In general, and according to a preliminary review, the numbers published by the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza, which has consistently broadcast lies and false information throughout the war, do not align with the information held by the IDF, the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike,” the IDF said.
“Despite the extensive measures taken by the IDF to enable the Gazan population to move away from combat zones, including by designating a humanitarian area, the Hamas terrorist organization continues to embed its operatives and military infrastructure in the humanitarian area and systematically use Gazan civilians as a human shield for its terrorist activities,” it added.
Throughout the course of the war, Israel has struck numerous Hamas control centers, rocket launchers, weapons caches and other assets located inside Gaza’s humanitarian zones.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
