The Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday morning that Israeli airstrikes overnight in Gaza killed several Hamas militants involved in the October 7 attacks.
At the time of the attacks, the militants were located in school campuses and were operating from inside two structures in the Shati and Daraj Tuffah areas of northern Gaza.
The army said many of the militants killed were involved in the October 7 attacks, had taken hostages and were planning further attacks.
“The Hamas terrorist organization continually violates international law by systematically exploiting civilian structures and using the civilian population as human shields for its terrorist activity against Israel,” the IDF statement said.
The army has found Hamas weapons, tunnel shafts and command centers in schools, hospitals, homes and UN facilities. In recent days, Israeli air strikes and raids have targeted buildings used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, including an UNRWA facility, a Gaza university and residential homes, as well as a rocket launching site located inside the humanitarian zone.
Aerial surveillance, precision weapons, and additional intelligence measures were used to minimize harm to civilians.
According to Palestinian reports, the sister of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was among those killed in the Shati attack, but details were unclear.
Hamas attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7 killed at least 1,200 people and took 252 Israeli and foreign hostages. More than 30 of the remaining 116 hostages are believed to have died.
