Tel Aviv: A senior Hamas intelligence figure was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday morning. Meanwhile, the IDF confirmed it arrested Palestinian terrorists hiding in a Gaza school.

The strike eliminated Yussef Rafik Ahmed Shabat, a security officer in Hamas' military intelligence wing of the Beit Hanoun Battalion. The IDF said Shabat was responsible for investigations in Hamas' Internal Security Department in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

"His elimination significantly damages the terrorist organization's investigations department," the IDF said.

Also in Beit Hanoun, Israeli soldiers apprehended numerous Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists hiding in a school.

Based on intelligence, forces from the IDF's Northern Brigade entered a compound containing two facilities used as schools. The terrorists had used civilians in the compound as human shields. Before entering the compound, soldiers announced to the civilians to leave for their safety. Several terrorists were killed and the rest were arrested.

Israeli authorities reported on Wednesday that the first shipments of humanitarian aid routed through the Port of Ashdod were transferred to Gaza. Delivered were eight truckloads of flour sent by the World Food Program.

"There is no limit to the amount of humanitarian aid we are willing to facilitate because we know that our war is with Hamas, not with the people of Gaza," said an official from the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, a unit within the Israeli Defense Ministry. COGAT coordinates civilian issues in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

At least 1,200 people were killed and 240 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas's attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the remaining 134 hostages, Israel recently declared 31 of them dead.

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