Tel Aviv: The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday said that it has killed 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants who were carrying out terrorist operations from a school in central Gaza City. "Based on Israeli intelligence, approximately 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, including senior commanders, were operating from the compound struck at the Al-Tabi'in school, using it to carry out terrorist attacks.

The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility," the IDF said in a post on X. Dismissing the information published by the Hamas-run Government Information Office, the IDF clarified that the numbers of the precise munitions used and the accuracy of the strike published by Hamas do not align with the information held by the IDF. Labelling the Hamas reports as "exaggerated," the forces advised the media to "act with caution" about information released by Hamas sources, as they have been proven to be "sorely unreliable." "Before the attack, many measures were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians, including the use of precision weaponry, contractual measures and intelligence information," the IDF post read. Israel also accused Hamas of "systematically violating international law" and operating while using the "population as a human shield for terrorist activity." Meanwhile, the Hamas-run government media office announced that at least 100 Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes at a school serving as a shelter for displaced people in the Al-Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza City.

On Friday, the IDF said that it has also eliminated a senior Hamas Commander named Samer Mahmoud al-Haj in Lebanon. "Samer operated as the military forces' commander in the Ain al-Hilweh camp, located in the area of Sidon in Lebanon, and was responsible for the recruitment and training of terrorists to attack the State of Israel. We will continue operating to eliminate the threat of Hamas, no matter what arena the terrorist organisation operates in," the IDF stated.

(IANS)