The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) continued a relentless assault on the conflict-torn Gaza Strip by dropping at least 6,000 bombs weighing 4,000 tonnes to eliminate hundreds of Hamas militants as of Thursday. The operation, which began in the early hours of the sixth day of the war, also saw the involvement of dozens of fighter jets, helicopter gunships and aircraft.
Taking to social media platform X, the IDF said that it had eliminated a commander of Hamas and a group of operatives who stayed with him and orchestrated the terror attacks against Israel. A combat management room of the Rafah Brigade in southern Gaza was also destroyed.
"Over 3,600 targets were attacked and hundreds of terrorists were killed in the attacks. Among the attacked targets were the command and control targets, strategic military infrastructures, munitions production sites, intelligence assets, leadership targets, naval superiority targets and rocket array targets," said the IDF.
Earlier, the Israeli Air Force on Friday said that it struck 750 military targets in Gaza overnight, including underground Hamas terror tunnels, military compounds and posts, residences of senior terrorist operatives used as military command centers, weapons storage warehouses, comms rooms and targeted senior terrorist operatives.
"Dozens of fighter jets struck numerous Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip, including 12 Hamas military assets, each located in a multi-story building used by the Hamas for terror purposes," it said on X.
The war between Israel and Hamas
The military also shared videos of armament production. It has ordered at least 1.1 million Gazans living in the northern part of the Strip to evacuate ahead of a possible ground offensive, according to the United Nations.
The UN warned that so many people fleeing en masse would be catastrophic, and Hamas, which staged the unprecedented and brutal attack on Israel, dismissed it as a "disgusting psychological war" and called on people to stay in their homes, adding to the widespread panic.
The week-old war has already claimed over 2,800 lives on both sides and sent tensions soaring across the region. The death toll from Israeli strikes on Gaza rose to 1,537, with 6,612 people wounded, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Thursday. Of those killed, 500 were under the age of 18, the ministry said. On the other hand, over 1,300 people have died in Israel from the Hamas attack since Saturday morning.
Palestinians said that heavy Israeli airstrikes continued across the Gaza Strip, with bombardment on residential buildings in densely populated city districts and refugee camps. Additionally, Syrian state media reported that Israeli airstrikes on Thursday put two Syrian international airports out of service.
On Thursday, Israel said its complete siege of the territory — which has left Palestinians desperate for food, fuel and medicine — would remain in place until Hamas militants free some 150 hostages taken during their grisly weekend incursion.
“Not a single electricity switch will be flipped on, not a single faucet will be turned on and not a single fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said on social media.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the health system in the Gaza Strip is at a breaking point. A release issued by the WHO said that time is running out to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe if fuel and life-saving health and humanitarian supplies cannot be urgently delivered to the Gaza Strip.
"Hospitals have only a few hours of electricity each day as they are forced to ration depleting fuel reserves and rely on generators to sustain the most critical functions. Even these functions will have to cease in a few days, when fuel stocks are due to run out," the release added.
(with agency inputs)
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