An Israeli strike in Beit Lahia on Wednesday that killed a Hamas terrorist was carried out with the approval of IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, marking the first Gaza strike conducted under a new requirement for such high-level authorization.
The target was the commander of a Hamas cell that had been planning attacks against IDF forces operating in the Gaza Strip, according to the military.
The IDF said the strike was carried out to eliminate an immediate threat to Israeli troops.
Footage of the strike targeting the Hamas operative in Gaza
(Video: IDF)
Such an operation would previously have been considered routine and could have been carried out several times a day. But targeted killings were halted at the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz amid US pressure and ongoing negotiations.
Military sources said that since the ceasefire began, 514 terrorists have been killed in the Gaza sector and around 150 others wounded.
They added that the IDF has struck 790 targets during the ceasefire period and that the Yellow Line has expanded since then.
“There is no policy of the IDF lacking motivation to carry out strikes,” the sources said. “There are clear directives from the political echelon as part of the negotiations.”
Military officials also rejected claims made by Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman regarding an alleged exercise involving 50 members of Hamas’ Nukhba force preparing to seize an Israeli community.
“We did not see an exercise by 50 Nukhba operatives to take over a community,” they said.
“Information was received from an intelligence source, it was examined, and at the same time we raised readiness, moved capabilities forward and ruled out the incident, which in fact did not take place.”
The officials confirmed, however, that targeted killings had been temporarily suspended at the demand of the political leadership.
“Indeed, at the request of the political echelon, targeted killings were temporarily halted,” they said. “The instruction to forces is to eliminate an immediate threat without requiring approval from a senior military level.”