IDF says it killed Islamic jihad commander east of Rafah

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday it had killed an Islamic jihad commander who was believed to have been the head of logistics in Rafah for the pro-Iranian militia allied with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

The attack, part of airstrikes, took place east of Rafah, the army said, adding that the IDF continued its operations in the southern city and also in the central and northern Gaza Strip.

In the airstrikes, Israeli troops also destroyed weapons depots and rocket positions belonging to the Islamists, the IDF said.

Fierce fighting has been going on for days in the Jabalia refugee settlement in northern Gaza.

Israeli soldiers have killed several militants in gun battles over the past 24 hours, the military said Saturday morning. They also destroyed several tunnel shafts and a rocket emplacement.

Near the so-called Nezarim corridor, Israeli soldiers encountered a squad of Islamists equipped with bazookas. An Israeli drone shot down enemy fighters, according to the IDF statement. The information could not initially be independently verified.

The Nezarim Corridor is occupied by the Israeli army. It divides the Gaza Strip into two parts approximately in half.

The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre of more than 1,200 people killed by Hamas and other groups in Israel on October 7.

Israel responded with massive airstrikes and a ground offensive.

The health authority in Hamas-controlled Gaza said more than 35,000 Palestinians have died since the start of the war. The figures, which cannot be independently verified, do not distinguish between civilians and armed combatants.

In Rafah, the Israeli leadership says it wants to destroy the last Hamas battalions believed to be there.