Latest Israeli Strikes Against Hamas Focused on Naval Commando Units

TEL AVIV — Recent Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have focused on Hamas’ elite forces, including positions held by its naval commando unit, an informed source with the terrorist group told Breitbart Jerusalem.

Israel has repeatedly struck positions of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ so-called military wing, over the past two days in response to continued rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel. In the first wave of strikes, the Israeli air force hit Hamas’ rocket manufacturing facilities and the group estimated the damage in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in addition to the loss of dozens of rockets and the lives of two personnel.

According to the source in Hamas, the second wave of strikes, which began on Wednesday, targeted the positions of Hamas’ naval commando unit in the region west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. In addition to a training facility, the source said Israeli jets also struck a storage facility for the unit’s gear.

Early Thursday morning, the Israeli air force hit two of the terror unit’s positions, one west of Gaza city and the other west of Deir al Balah in Central Gaza. The strike west of Gaza City damaged the naval commando’s equipment and damage in the second strike was limited, the source said.

Another position hit Thursday morning was the outpost of Quraish, which serves Hamas’ so-called elite forces in what was once the Israeli settlement of Netzarim. This strike caused heavy damage to the property at the outpost, which was nearly completely destroyed.

On Thursday, Hamas marked 30 years since its founding. In a statement released by the terrorist organization, it called for the continuation of the fight for Jerusalem, but also called on the various Palestinian factions to act within the framework of national Palestinian consensus. This could be understood as an appeal to the factions to refrain from unilateral action that would involve the Gaza Strip, like the firing of rockets, which Hamas has been fighting while simultaneously calling to escalate terrorist attacks in the West Bank and clashes with Israeli soldiers.

The statement also condemned the recent announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The Balfour Declaration was also condemned in the statement, as was the refusal of the British government to acknowledge “the historic mistake of the Balfour Declaration.”