Tel Aviv: Following an overnight strike by the Israeli military at an UN-run school in Gaza, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has said that the country is operating against Hamas that is using the UNRWA facilities and added that they stooped a "ticking time bomb."
He further said that Hamas has waged war on schools and hospitals in the last few months.
"We are operating against Hamas, that is, using UNRWA facilities. In the last months alone, Hamas waged war on schools and hospitals. Hamas hopes that international law and public sympathy will provide a shield for their military activities, which is why they systematically operate from schools, UN facilities, hospitals, and mosques," Hagari said.
He said that the IDF conducted a "precise, intelligence-based strike that targeted dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists hiding inside a UN school in Gaza," adding that some of these were also involved in the Hamas massacre of October 7.
"They were planning and conducting attacks from inside classrooms of this UNRWA school. Our precise strike was based on concrete intelligence from multiple sources. The terrorists inside this school were planning more attacks against Israelis, some of them imminent. We stopped a ticking time bomb. This is what it was," Hagari said.
"Our intelligence indicated that the terrorists were operating from inside these three classrooms...three classrooms. We delayed our strike twice because we identified civilians in the area. We had aerial surveillance that had been monitoring the Hamas compound for a few days. We conducted the strike once our intelligence and surveillance indicated that there were no women or children inside the Hamas compound inside those classrooms," he noted.
Israeli Air Force fighter jets conducted a strike at a Hamas compound inside a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) school in the area of Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip overnight, the IDF confirmed on Thursday.
The Israeli strike reportedly killed at least 40 people in the early hours of this morning, Al Jazeera reported, citing Gaza's government statement.
According to IDF, "Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who belonged to the Nukhba Forces were operating in the compound."
As per IDF, the terrorists used the UNRWA school it as a shelter. Several terrorists who planned to carry out terror attacks and promote terrorist activities against IDF troops in the immediate time frame were eliminated in the strike.
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