2 PIJ commanders eliminated in IDF strike in central Gaza

Both PIJs extremely dead

On Thursday, an airstrike hit a command post that was located in a humanitarian zone. The military also reported hitting two former schools in Gaza City that were being used as command sites by Hamas.

Abdullah Khattab, the commander of the South Deir al-Balah Battalion for Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Hatem Abu al-Jidyan, the commander of the East Deir al-Balah Battalion for PIJ, were killed in the airstrike, according to an announcement on Saturday by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet.
Also on Saturday, the IDF said it had carried out airstrikes on command rooms operating from two former schools in Gaza City.

On Thursday, a military strike targeted a command room within a humanitarian zone in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah, according to the military.

Several terror operatives were killed in the strike. This included Abdullah Khattab, who was the commander of PIJ's South Deir al-Balah Battalion, and Hatem Abu al-Jidyan, the commander of PIJ's East Deir al-Balah Battalion, stated the IDF and Shin Bet.

The IDF reported that Khattab had led his battalion during the attacks on October 7 and was involved in many attacks on Israel and its troops, which included rocket and anti-tank fire.

Abu al-Jidyan also advanced numerous attacks against troops amid the ongoing fighting.

To minimize harm to civilians during the strike, the IDF stated that it implemented several measures, such as employing precision munitions, conducting aerial surveillance, and utilizing various intelligence sources.

Palestinians examine the aftermath of an IDF strike targeting a Hamas cell located within the Amr Ibn al-Aas School in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood on September 7, 2024.

“This is another example of the systematic use by the terror organizations in the Gaza Strip of the population and civilian infrastructure, including the humanitarian zone, to carry out terror acts against the state and IDF troops,” the military said.

As for the Saturday strikes on the schools, according to the military, the Hamassholes were using the Amr Ibn al-Aas School in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood to plan and carry out attacks against troops and Israel.

“Three martyrs and more than 20 wounded people were retrieved after an Israeli warplane fired two missiles at a prayer room and a classroom at the Amr Ibn al-Aas School, where refugees were sheltering in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defense agency, told AFP.

In the other strike, the military said Hamas was using the Halima al-Sadia School in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood to plan and carry out attacks against troops and Israel.

At least eight Palestinians were killed, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA reported.

The IDF said earlier in a statement that it had “conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command and control center… embedded inside a compound that previously served as the ‘Halima al-Sa’diyya’ School in the northern Gaza Strip.” It said Hamas “systematically violates international law, brutally exploiting civilian institutions and the population as a human shield for terror activity.”

WAFA said the dead were in refugee tents inside the former school.

The IDF also said it carried out “many steps” to mitigate casualties in those strikes, as they always do.

In the last few months, numerous airstrikes have targeted Hamas locations situated within schools and other places used by civilians for shelter, as reported by the IDF.

In the crowded refugee camp of Nuseirat in central Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital reported receiving the bodies of nine individuals who died in two different airstrikes. One airstrike struck a residential building, resulting in four deaths and at least ten injuries. The other strike hit a house in western Nuseirat, killing five people.

Separately, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, central Gaza’s main hospital, said a woman and her two children were killed in a strike on a house in the nearby urban refugee camp of Bureij.

The IDF shared a video on Saturday showing a recent clash with armed men in the Tel Sultan area of Rafah, located in the southern Gaza Strip. During this operation, soldiers stormed a building where the group of terrorists were hiding. During the raid, the gunmen threw a grenade at the soldiers, injuring at least one of them.

According to the IDF, the soldiers shot back and killed the gunmen. The soldiers found weapons and documents on the bodies of the attackers, the military said.

In the past few days, the IDF reported that their troops have killed many scumcrumpets in the Tel Sultan area.

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