The residence was used by senior Hamas leadership to direct terror attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, according to the IDF.
By Joshua Marks, JNS
Israel Defense Forces fighter jets struck the home of Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh in the Gaza Strip overnight Wednesday as Israeli forces continued their operations in the enclave.
The residence “was used as terrorist infrastructure and often served as a meeting point for Hamas’s senior leaders to direct terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” the army said.
Haniyeh resides in Qatar, where he has an office under the protection of the Gulf country’s government. Israeli Minister Benny Gantz warned on Wednesday that Israel will kill Hamas leaders responsible for the Oct. 7 massacre “in Gaza and around the world.”
Israeli forces on Wednesday successfully transferred medical supplies to Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City while soldiers conducted searches for Hamas terrorist infrastructure inside the complex.
The army announced on Wednesday morning that incubators, baby food and medical supplies brought into Gaza by IDF tanks had reached Shifa, and that medical teams and Arabic speakers were ensuring that the supplies reached those in need.
Troops entered Shifa overnight Tuesday to conduct what the military said was a precision operation against Hamas, which the IDF says is headquartered in a vast tunnel system underneath Gaza’s largest hospital.
So far, IDF troops have found weapons, military technology and intelligence information at the compound.
Also on Tuesday, Israeli forces destroyed a Hamas naval forces weapons cache containing diving gear, explosive devices and weapons during the takeover of the Shati camp, the IDF said.
IDF troops also struck terrorists and located weapons including explosive belts, explosive barrels, RPGs, anti-tank missiles, comms equipment and intelligence documents.
Sirens continued to sound in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip on Thursday morning. Terrorists in Gaza have fired nearly 10,000 rockets at Israeli civilians since the start of the war on Oct. 7, when thousands of Hamas terrorists stormed across the border, murdering 1,200 people, wounding over 5,000 and taking over 200 hostages.
IDF strikes Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon
On the northern front, an anti-tank missile was launched from Lebanon toward the area of Shlomi in the Western Galilee on Wednesday. The IDF responded by striking the Hezbollah launch site.
The IDF also struck “several observation posts and additional launch posts, a weapons compound and terror infrastructure sites belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” according to the military.
Two more fallen soldiers named
The IDF on Thursday morning released the names of two more soldiers killed in Gaza: Cpt. Assaf Master, 22, from Kibbutz Bahan, a platoon commander in the 601st Battalion of the 401st Brigade; and Capt. Kafir Yitzhak Franco, 22, from Jerusalem, a platoon commander in the 52nd Battalion of the 401st Brigade.
They both fell in battle in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the IDF.
At least 54 soldiers have been killed in action in Gaza and at the Lebanon border since the start of the Gaza ground operation on Oct. 27; 370 Israeli soldiers have died since the war started.