Jerusalem, May 17 (IANS). The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed on Sunday that it had killed the Hamas operations headquarters commander who was carrying forward conspiracies against the Israeli army.
“The IDF in the Southern Command on Saturday killed Baha Baroud, commander of the operations headquarters of the Hamas organization,” the IDF said on the social media platform X.
According to the IDF, Baroud was involved in the preparation and carrying out of numerous Hamas plots against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians stationed in the Gaza Strip throughout the war, and especially in recent times.
“The ammunition posed an immediate threat to IDF soldiers, so it was killed in a precision airstrike,” the IDF said.
The army also said that several steps were taken to protect civilians from harm before the attack. This included the use of precision weapons and aerial surveillance.
Last week, the IDF claimed that it had destroyed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad weapons manufacturing base and weapons warehouse in northern Gaza.
The IDF had said that the site was being used by the organization’s weapons manufacturing unit and by Hamas to make explosives and store other weapons, which were to be used to harm Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.
IDF forces under the Southern Command are deployed in that area.
Last month the IDF said it had destroyed 14 kilometers of underground tunnels in the northern Gaza Strip.
According to the army, during this operation, the forces of the brigade along with the Yahlam unit have so far destroyed about 14 kilometer long tunnels. Sleeping rooms and a large quantity of weapons were found inside these tunnels. Along with this, the campaign to completely clean the area continued.
The IDF said that forces of the Northern Brigade and units under Division 252 have been conducting a special operation for several months to destroy Hamas’ underground network in northern Gaza.
–IANS
AY/ABM