Israel confirms an airstrike on the Gaza refugee camp

A series of Israeli airstrikes hit the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza on Tuesday, in what Israel said was an attempt to eliminate a senior Hamas commander in the area.

The Associated Press reported that at least six Israeli airstrikes hit residential homes in the heart of the refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City, citing the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

Gaza officials told Reuters that 50 Palestinians were killed and 150 more injured. Footage from the scene showed people searching for loved ones through concrete apartment blocks, according to Reuters.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) this Tuesday claimed airstrikes killed Ibrahim Biarithe commander of Hamas’ Jabaliya Central Battalion, along with the “neutralization” of an estimated 50 “terrorists.”

Asked about the Israeli attack on the Jabalya camp later Tuesday, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said he could not “speak to individual Israeli attacks” but that the US believes “considering civilian security is both a moral and a strategic obligation”.

Defense officials “care about civilian casualties, and we have made clear both publicly and privately our concern for the protection of innocent life and respect for the law of war,” he told reporters.

Ryder also claimed that the Israeli military does not “deliberately target civilians, unlike Hamas,” which “is creating this additional challenge for Israel as they conduct their operations.”

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer pressed IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht on Tuesday why the Israeli military went ahead with the attacks knowing there were refugees and “innocent civilians” in the area.

“That’s the tragedy of war, Wolf,” Hecht replied. “I mean, we, as you know, have been saying for days, move south. The civilians [who] are not participating, please go south.”

The IDF claimed Biara helped deploy Hamas fighters in the militant group’s Oct. 7 massacre that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians. And Israeli forces said Biara continued to direct Hamas’ military activities in northern Gaza.

Hecht stated that the IDF is doing everything possible to minimize civilian deaths.

“We, again, were focused on this commander, again you have who this man was… [he] killed many, many Israelis,” Hecht said. “We’re doing everything we can… It’s a very complicated battle space, there could be infrastructure, there could be tunnels.”

Israel warned more than 1 million Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza to move south in recent weeks, ahead of a wider ground incursion into the territory. While some have fled, several hundred thousand Palestinians remain in northern Gaza.

Israeli the forces increased its military incursion into northern Gaza over the weekend, targeting Hamas militants and infrastructure north of Gaza City. The IDF said it has also stepped up air and naval strikes as part of its stepped-up counter-offensive.

“[Hamas] they hide inside [the] civilian population and, again, we’re taking this stage by stage,” Hecht said. “And we’re going to go after every terrorist involved [in] that hateful attack on the seventh of October”.

At least 8,525 Palestinians have died as a result of the violence in Gaza, according to to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health. More than 21,500 civilians have been injured since October 7, the ministry said, bringing hospitals to the brink of collapse.

—Contributed by Ellen Mitchell. Updated Tuesday at 4:08 p.m