There’s word of a new airstrike on Rafah on Sunday, just hours after Hamas lobbed rockets from Gaza into Israel overnight, as we shared earlier.
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirms that it launched the strike against a Hamas compound, and took out two of the terror group’s top commanders, Fox News Digital reported:
While the exact number of killed remains unclear at this time, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that it struck a Hamas compound in Rafah in which “significant Hamas terrorists were operating.”
The IDF, citing intelligence that it said indicated Hamas’ use of the area, said it carried out the strike “against legitimate targets under international law.”
Statements like that have become crucial for Israel, just days after the ICC, while accusing the Jewish state of war crimes, demanded that it end attacks in Rafah.
Read More: International Court of Justice Orders Israel to Immediately Cease Rafah Offensive
The report continued with details on who the Hamas leaders were and their ties to previous terror attacks killing Israelis:
IDF sources told Fox News Digital the strike eliminated Yassin Rabia, the commander of Hamas’ leadership in Judea and Samaria, as well as Khaled Nagar, a senior official in Hamas’ Judea and Samaria wing.
The IDF said that both men had perpetrated numerous terrorist attacks in the early 2000s in which Israeli civilians and soldiers were killed.
The IDF acknowledged reports that “several civilians in the area were harmed” from the airstrike and a subsequent fire. It said the incident is “under review.”
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Since Hamas is known to operate out of civilian areas, it’s no surprise that there are also reports of some civilians killed in the attack, though it is unknown how many total people were killed:
The Red Crescent Society said Israel had designated the location a “humanitarian area.” The neighborhood is not included in areas that Israel’s military ordered evacuated this month.
Of course, the Palestinian health officials who are an arm of Hamas claim more than “several” civilians were killed in the attack:
Palestinian health and civil emergency service officials, meanwhile, say the airstrike killed at least 35 Palestinians and wounded dozens more.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the death toll is likely to rise as search and rescue efforts continue in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, more than a mile northwest of the city center.
Luckily, there have been no reported injuries so far from Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel, which are thought to be the “first long-range attacks” since Jan:
There were no immediate reports of casualties in what appeared to be the first long-range rocket attack from Gaza since January. Hamas’ military wing claimed responsibility. Israel’s military said eight projectiles crossed into Israel after being launched from Rafah and “a number” were intercepted and the launcher was destroyed.
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As this is a developing story, RedState will provide further details as they become available.