Craters after Israeli strike on Khan Younis, Gaza Strip
Israeli fighter jets struck "significant" Hamas operatives in a command and control center embedded within the humanitarian zone in the Gaza Strip's Khan Younis, the IDF said early Tuesday. According to Palestinian sources, the airstrike killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others.
The army said that the strike, which was directed by intelligence from the Shin Bet security agency, Military Intelligence and the Southern Command, targeted senior Hamas operatives in Gaza, including Samer Abu Daqqa, head of Hamas' aerial unit in the Gaza Strip; Osama Tabesh, chief of the terror group’s surveillance and targeting division within its military intelligence, and Ayman Mabhouh. Qatar-based Al Jazeera reported that all three were killed.
"The operatives were involved in planning and executing terror attacks against IDF forces and Israeli civilians," the IDF said, pushing back on claims of a high civilian casualty count in the attack and claiming "Hamas’ media office in Gaza has been caught lying several times before." The military noted that extensive measures were taken to minimize civilian casualties, including the use of precision munitions and real-time aerial surveillance.
The Civil Defense, first responders operating under the Hamas-run government, reported dozens of casualties, claiming the strike hit a camp for civilians displaced by the war in Khan Younis' Muwasi which has been designated a humanitarian zone by Israel.
A Hamas spokesperson told Palestinian news agency Shehab that over 200 tents were in the area, with 20 to 40 completely destroyed. He described the aftermath as "massive craters" and alleged entire families were buried in what he called a "massacre." Rescue efforts, he said, are hindered by severe shortages of equipment and resources.
An Associated Press camera operator at the scene reported seeing three large craters, with first responders and displaced residents digging through the rubble with their hands and garden tools by the light of mobile phones. "They pulled body parts from the sand," the photographer told AP.
In response to the strike, Hamas issued a statement denying the presence of its operatives in the area, calling the IDF’s claims "blatant lies" intended to justify what it termed "heinous crimes." The group reiterated that it does not use civilian areas for military purposes and called on the international community to intervene, accusing Israel of genocide.
This is the second major Israeli airstrike in Gaza in recent weeks. Last month, Israeli jets struck a Hamas command center concealed within a school in Gaza City, killing at least 20 people, according to local reports. Israeli officials said the facility had been used by Hamas terrorists to plan and carry out attacks.
Health authorities in Gaza reported additional casualties from recent Israeli airstrikes, claiming 28 people were killed in one day, including a set of quadruplets. In a separate incident early Sunday, a woman and her six children were reportedly killed in an airstrike on a home in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.