Israel strikes central Gaza school taken over by Hamas

The IDF added that it stepped up aerial surveillance and used precision munitions to mitigate danger to civilians.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Israeli aircraft struck a Hamas command and control center in a building formerly used as a school in central Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday.

According to the IDF, the building, which served as the Khaled ibn al-Walid School, was being used by terror groups to plan and carry out attacks.

“This is a further example of the Hamas terrorist organization’s systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure in violation of international law,” the army said.

The IDF added that it stepped up aerial surveillance and used precision munitions to mitigate danger to civilians.

The announcement comes two days after Israel released footage of Hamas terrorists robbing humanitarian aid from a truck in the southern Gaza area of Rafah.

Soldiers who were securing the humanitarian corridor directed drones to kill the terrorists as they fled the scene in vehicles.

The Press Service of Israel recently reported that Hamas is continuing to pay salaries to its gunmen and civil servants partly through taxing and diverting humanitarian aid and distributing food vouchers — with the help of clans, criminal groups and so-called “People’s Committees.”

At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead.

Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.