Israeli aircraft struck terrorists in a Gaza City neighborhood Thursday afternoon, Palestinian officials said, as Israeli forces carried out simultaneous operations in Gaza and southern Lebanon in what the military described as enforcement of ceasefire arrangements that armed groups have repeatedly violated.
The strike hit the Nasser neighborhood's Italian Compound area, where Hamas operatives have concentrated since civilian populations were directed there under ceasefire agreements that largely spared the district from the destruction that gutted much of the rest of the territory. Palestinian sources reported several casualties but did not provide details on the condition of those wounded.
The attack was the third Israeli military operation inside Gaza within 24 hours. Earlier Thursday, Israeli aircraft struck and killed a militant traveling in a vehicle in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Overnight, Israeli forces identified and eliminated a group of armed Hamas operatives who had approached Israeli military positions along the Yellow Line in northern Gaza, the military said.
"Immediately upon identification, the militants were struck and eliminated from the air in order to remove the threat to our forces," the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
The escalating pace of operations comes as Israeli officials accuse Gaza militant groups of systematically undermining the ceasefire. Over the weekend, Israeli forces destroyed four rocket-launching positions across multiple areas of the Strip after determining they had been constructed in direct violation of the agreement. The military said the positions had been oriented for potential fire at both Israeli forces inside Gaza and civilian communities inside Israel.
The IDF said precision munitions were used in the strikes and that steps were taken before each operation to limit civilian harm, standard language the military uses when acknowledging attacks in densely populated areas.
Israeli officials have increasingly framed the operations not as violations of the ceasefire but as its enforcement, arguing that armed groups have used the relative calm to rearm and reposition. The military said it would continue targeted strikes against what it called immediate threats and warned that any attempt to attack Israeli forces or breach ceasefire terms would draw an immediate response.
Official confirmation of target identities typically lags strikes by approximately 24 hours, the IDF noted, pending battlefield verification.
