Two days ago, on Thursday, the IDF carried out a targeted strike against terrorists from the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization who were operating under the guise of journalists.
The terrorists were operating from a command and control compound established in the courtyard of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in the Gaza City area. They used the compound to plan and execute terror activities against IDF troops and Israeli civilians.
"The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue to use hospitals for terrorist purposes, cynically and cruelly exploiting the civilian population inside the hospital and its surroundings," the IDF stressed in its statement.
The terrorists, named as Suleiman Hani Saliman Hajaj and Samir al-Rifai, are not the first to have claimed to be journalists: In December, the IAF conducted a precise strike on an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell inside of a vehicle in the area of Nuseirat, eliminating a number of terrorists, among them five who claimed to be "journalists."
Ibrahim Jamal Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali was an Islamic Jihad operations and combat propaganda operative; Faisal Abdallah Muhammad Abu Qamsan served as Head of Security for the Islamic Jihad in Nuseirat; Mohammed Ayad Khamis al-Lada’a was an Islamic Jihad combat propagandist; Ayman Nihad Abd Alrahman Jadi served as an Islamic Jihad combat propagandist and former Islamic Jihad naval operative; and Fadi Ihab Muhammad Ramadan Hassouna was an Islamic Jihad combat propagandist in Nuseirat.
Responding to criticism of the strike, the IDF clarified: "Intelligence from multiple sources confirmed that these individuals were Islamic Jihad operatives posing as journalists."
"One source was a list of Islamic Jihad operatives discovered by the IDF during operations in the Gaza Strip. This list explicitly identified four of the eliminated individuals as members of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization."