Over 11,000 terrorist targets struck in Gaza since war erupted: IDF

TEL AVIV: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday said it has "struck over 11,000 targets belonging to terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip” since the Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on October 7.

The figure is an average of more than 440 strikes per day for the first 25 days of the war, CNN reported.

The IDF has repeatedly said it was not targeting civilians in its unrelenting bombardment of Gaza in response to Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,400 people.

An Israeli strike targeting a Hamas commander in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza Tuesday killed a large number of people and left catastrophic damage, according to eyewitnesses and medics in the enclave.

In its statement on Wednesday, the IDF said combined troops “struck several terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” overnight on Tuesday, including operational command centres and Hamas cells.

Israeli troops directed airstrikes on “several Hamas terrorists” who had barricaded themselves in a multi-storey building located near a school, medical center, and government offices in the Jabaliya area, the IDF statement said.

According to an earlier IDF statement, the airstrike on Tuesday targeted and killed Ibrahim Biari, whom it described as one of the Hamas commanders responsible for the October 7 attack.

The IDF also said “numerous other Hamas terrorists” were hit in the strike, and claimed the Central Jabalya Battalion had taken control of civilian buildings.

Hamas however has strongly denied the presence of any of its leaders in the refugee camp, CNN reported.

Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the militant group, accused Israel of attempting to justify what he described as a “heinous crime against safe civilians, children, and women in Jabaliya camp”.

More than 8,400 people have died in Gaza during the ongoing war.