Israel struck the home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Gaza Strip overnight with a warplane, its defence forces announced on Telegram.
They also released video footage purportedly confirming the airstrike.
The Israel Defence Forces claimed the targeted residence was being used as a “terrorist infrastructure”.
“Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck the residence of Ismail Haniyeh, the Head of Hamas’s Political Bureau, which was used as terrorist infrastructure and often served as a meeting point for Hamas’ senior leaders to direct terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” it said on Thursday. This comes as the Israeli military is set to comb southern Gaza in new operations to stamp out Hamas.
The defence forces claimed that its troops located and destroyed a Hamas naval forces weapons cache containing diving gear, explosive devices and weapons during their military takeover of the Shati camp, a refugee camp which Israel believes is a Hamas stronghold.
“IDF troops also struck terrorists and located weapons including explosive belts, explosive barrels, RPGs, anti-tank missiles, comms equipment, and intelligence documents,” the defence forces added.
The Independent has not verified the claims made by Israel Defence Forces.
Unverified visuals shared by the IDF showed an aerial video in black and white with a view of the attack captured in five seconds. Another 38 seconds long video showed the operational activity by the IDF troops at an unspecified site, capturing twin airstrikes – one from a nearby vicinity metres away and another taken from height showing the attack similar to the one carried out on Haniyeh’s residence.
The IDF also shared seven photos of the weapons located without further details of their location and time of recovery.
While Hamas has previously claimed that the IDF has struck two homes belonging to Haniyeh, Hamas’s chief of political bureau, this is the first strike IDF has swiftly taken responsibility for.
This comes as Israeli forces continued their search operations inside the al-Shifa hospital, claiming that the health institution is being used for Hamas militancy operations.
Mohammed Zaqout, the director of hospitals in Gaza, said Israeli tanks were inside the medical compound and that soldiers had entered buildings, including the emergency and surgery departments, which house intensive care units.
The war on Gaza has killed more than 11,200 Palestinians – two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which has not released separate numbers for civilian and militants deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing.
Despite claiming that Hamas maintains terrorism-related infrastructure on the grounds of the hospital, the Israeli military has not shown any signs of a tunnel or sophisticated command centres after storming the building.
Hamas and Gaza health officials deny militants operate in Shifa.
Israel’s fresh military operations in southern Gaza will now endanger more civilian lives as it has already struck the region with deadly airstrikes despite claiming that Palestinian civilians are safer in southern Gaza.
The announcement from Israel has sparked a fear that the casualties in the war are set to rise and conditions could become even more difficult.
On Wednesday, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “there is no place in Gaza that we will not reach”.
“There is no hiding, no shelter, no refuge for the murderers of Hamas,” he told his troops along the Gaza border.
It is reported that Hamas’s military infrastructure, including thousands of fighters and an underground tunnel network, is believed to be intact in southern Gaza and officials also suspect that Hamas’ top commanders could be hiding in the area.
This will entail heavy street fighting in southern Gaza which will likely result in high civilian casualties as Israel has already forced most of Gaza’s population to cram into public shelters or private homes and Hamas embedded in residential neighbourhoods in the region.
