The IDF conducted a “precision strike” against a Hamas command centre embedded in a mosque in the al Taba’een school compound on Saturday, taking “numerous steps” to reduce civilian casualties.
In a statement posted on X/Twitter, the IDF gave extensive details of the terrorists killed in the attack, including their names, ages, affiliation and rank. On Monday, it confirmed that 31 terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad were dead.
An IDF spokesman said: “These terrorists operated in order to advance and carry out attacks against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel from inside the compound.” The IDF also posted photographs of the men it had identified as terrorists.
The strike had been “carried out using three precise munitions, which, according to professional analysis, can not cause the amount of damage that is being reported by the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza. Furthermore, no severe damage was caused to the compound where the terrorists were situated,” the spokesman added.
Before the attack, “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of a small warhead, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information,” he said.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said Israel had received “various intelligence indications” that there was a “high probability” that the commander of Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade, Ashraf Juda, was president at the location, but that it was not clear if he had been killed.
Sources within the Hamas-controlled Strip put the death toll at more than 100 as pictures of shrouded bodies and injured children lying on hospital beds filled TV screens across the world. The IDF expressed heavy scepticism over the claim, saying the numbers had been inflated.
David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, tweeted that he had been “appalled” by the attack and “the tragic loss” of life.
“Hamas must stop endangering civilians. Israel must comply with International Humanitarian Law,” he wrote. “We need an immediate ceasefire to protect civilians, free all hostages, and end restrictions on aid.”
The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Police Josep Borrell said there was “no justification for these massacres”.
However, US vice-president and Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris did not condemn the strike, though she said that “far too many civilians” had been killed in Gaza after Israel faced a mounting wave of condemnation.
Asked about the incident on the election campaign trail in Arizona, Harris said that Israel had “a right” to go after terrorists. “But as I have said many, many times, they also have, I believe, an important responsibility to avoid civilian casualties.”
It was not clear whether her comment about there being “too many civilian casualties” referred to the war in general or the specific attack on al-Taba’een, where Palestinians displaced from their homes had been sheltering.
Shrouded bodies are laid down at the al-Maamadani hospital, following an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City on August 10, 2024. The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas "command and control centre" that was "embedded" in Al-Tabi'een school in the Daraj neighbourhood. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP) (Photo by OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images
US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Hamas had been using schools "as locations to gather and operate out of”, adding: ”But we have also said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimise civilian harm.”
Egypt, which along with the US and Qatar, had been pushing for the resumption of talks for a ceasefire and the release of hostages this week, castigated Israel.
