OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said on Friday it had killed five Hamas fighters, including commanders, in an overnight raid in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia, where Palestinian medics reported dozens killed or missing.

In a statement, the military and the Shin Bet security agency said they had “eliminated five Hamas terrorists, including a Nukhba (commando) company commander and an additional company commander who participated in the October 7 massacre” that sparked the Gaza war last year.

Gaza civil defence says 17 killed in Israeli strikes

The statement added that the commanders had “led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim”, a kibbutz community in southern Israel, near the Gaza border.

Medics in the Gaza Strip said an overnight Israeli raid on Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing.

The civil defence agency was not immediately able to provide an exact toll.

The Israeli military said it had taken “numerous steps… to mitigate the risk to civilians”.

It named the Hamas group commanders killed as Jihad Kahlout and Muhammad Okel, “two terrorists who commanded the invasion of Israeli territory on October 7 and led the massacres and kidnappings on the Mefalsim road”.

They were “among the leaders of the combat in the northern Gaza Strip against IDF (army) soldiers, during the operation that is currently underway in the area”, the military statement added.

Vowing to stop Hamas from regrouping in the already devastated north of the Gaza Strip, Israel launched a sweeping assault on the area in early October.

According to Hamas-ruled Gaza’s health ministry, the latest Israeli operation has killed thousands of people.