Since the beginning of this war, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations have been systematically abusing the civilian population and infrastructures in Gaza for their terrorist activities against the State of Israel. This includes Hamas’ massive network of underground tunnels, which extend beneath towns, hospitals, mosques, schools, and UN facilities. These tunnels are used by terrorists to command attacks, store weapons, and hold Israeli hostages captive.

Exploitation of Hospitals and Schools

Hospitals across the Gaza Strip have been repeatedly infiltrated and weaponized by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, with terrorists’ tunnel shafts being increasingly found within them. In recent months, Hamas has focused on exploiting school buildings—often where civilians are sheltering inside—to use them as military facilities, command and control centers, for storing weapons, and to execute terror attacks.

Targeted Military Operations

Over the last few weeks, our intelligence has closely monitored an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility where approximately two dozen militants were operating. The names of 19 of these terrorists operating in this compound were published by us today. We also have intelligence indicating that Ashraf Judeh, the Islamic Jihad’s Brigade Commander of the central camps, was at the compound.

This military facility was embedded inside the Al-Tubb School building in Gaza City. After receiving clear intelligence of the threat posed by these terrorists and in accordance with international humanitarian law, we took numerous steps to mitigate the risk to civilians, including using aerial surveillance prior to the strike and selecting very precise munitions to avoid civilian casualties.

Precision Strike and Civilian Safety

Early this morning, the IDF conducted a precision strike against the terrorists in one specific building of the compound—an area where, according to our intelligence, no women and children were present. You can see in a video published by us today that the compound is still intact and that there is no significant cratering or damage to the main structure of the compound.

Condemnation of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s Tactics

This pattern of systematic abuse of schools for military activities by Hamas and Islamic Jihad endangers both Gazans and Israeli civilians. It must be condemned by the international community. Following the strike, the Hamas government information office in Gaza published an unverified casualty account, which was then shared around the world. These figures do not distinguish between combatants and noncombatants and do not match the information held by the IDF.

Hamas’ Strategy of Civilian Harm

The mastermind behind October 7th—the day where Hamas brutally massacred innocent Israelis and started this war—and the man last week appointed as Hamas’ political leader, stated himself that a higher Palestinian casualty count helps Hamas in its war goals. Where Israel sees harm to civilians as a tragedy, Hamas sees harm to civilians as a strategy.

Ongoing IDF Operations

The IDF will continue to operate in accordance with international humanitarian law to dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities and to bring back home all our 115 hostages—men, women, children, and the elderly—who have been held captive for over 300 days in horrific conditions. We are operating to create the conditions to bring them back home.

We call on the international community to do everything they can to fulfill this goal.