March 26 (UPI) — Israel on Tuesday said it continued to hit dozens of “terrorist” targets throughout Monday amid the United Nations Security Council adopting a cease-fire resolution for the remainder of Ramadan.
Israel Defense Forces said it hit at least 60 “terrorist targets and terrorist infrastructure” across the city of Khan Younis, killing an unspecified number of Hamas fighters in targeted raids on the Al-Amal hospital in the north of the city, Israel Defense Forces said in a post on X.
“Eliminated terrorists, carried out targeted raids on terrorist infrastructure and located large amounts of ammunition and weapons,” IDF said.
A video post of what the IDF said was day three of an operation in and around Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, in which 175 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters had been killed and 500 suspects detained, showed AK-47s, grenades, explosives, mortars and magazines found in the MRI department, maternity ward and on the roof.
However, it stressed the Shifa action was “precise operational activity” with troops “preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment”.
The IDF also said its warplanes carried out precision airstrikes on a “humanitarian area” of central Gaza after Hamas fired rockets from the vicinity at the city of Ashdod, 20 miles inside Israel.
“IAF fighter jets destroyed the post from which the rocket fire originated. The strike was precise, avoiding harm to civilians who evacuated the area prior to it,” IDF said.
The military said secondary blasts after the initial airstrikes indicated that there were armaments and ordnance stored or in use in the area.
Israeli warplanes attacked nearby Rafah overnight, witnesses told the BBC, with battles between Hamas and IDF troops continuing to rage around hospitals Khan Younis and Gaza City.
The Gaza Ministry of Health on Tuesday reported that 81 people were killed and 93 injured in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 32,414 with 274,787 people injured since the start of the war on Oct. 7.
The latest fighting came as the United Nations Security Council voted 14-0 on Monday afternoon for a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza to run through April 6, when the holy month of Ramadan ends.
Unlike all previous cease-fire resolution efforts, none of the five permanent members used their veto with the United States opting to abstain from the vote on the resolution calling for the unconditional release of hostages and the “urgent need to expand the flow” of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The United States’ tacit support of a resolution that does not make the cease-fire contingent on the release of the hostages opened up a U.S-Israel rift with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling off a delegation to Washington, accusing it of caving in to international pressure.
