IDF confirms targeted strike in northern Gaza – Israel News

The air force confirmed around 2:00 p.m. that it had struck a Gazan car that had tried to avoid inspection moving from central Gaza to northern Gaza.

There were unconfirmed reports of at least one dead and multiple wounded.

Reports first started to stream out about the event around 9:45 a.m., with IDF sources finally confirming the strike to The Jerusalem Post around 1:00 p.m., but the military remained publicly silent for more than another hour.

Video footage on social media appeared to show a vehicle on a road moving northward near the Mediterranean Sea suddenly exploding.

The IDF said that prior to targeting the car, it took some precautions to avoid striking Palestinian civilians, such as using a precision weapon and following the car from the air long enough to wait for it to be farther away from civilians.

No word on injured, killed persons

However, the IDF did not address whether the car’s passengers could have been arrested or if they presented any immediate danger, signifying that current IDF rules of engagement for cars that avoid a check may be to strike the car from the air without attempting an arrest.

It may also be more difficult for the IDF to carry out an arrest given that it has withdrawn much of its forces to external defense lines, and many of the inspections are now reportedly being carried out by a mix of private contractor American and Egyptian military inspectors.

Also, the IDF did not say how many persons were killed or wounded.

To date, since the January 19 ceasefire, there have been very few such incidents.

Generally, there has been almost no fighting at all.

Where there have been minor departures from the ceasefire, it was mostly brief attempts by Gazans to probe Israeli interim defense withdrawal lines to see if they could get through or how close they could get, with IDF forces responding with distancing fire.

It was unclear if the targeted strike was a limited move to stop a narrow violation or part of some larger strategy.

Unconfirmed reports say that one person was killed and multiple were injured.

This is a developing story.