Israeli Air Force and Loay Ayyoub for The Washington Post via Getty Images
- The Israeli Air Force said on Thursday that it's dropped around 6,000 bombs on the Gaza Strip.
- It added that it will "continue to attack forcefully and relentlessly, as long as necessary."
- Around 1,500 Palestinians have died in Israel's counterattack, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The Israeli Air Force said on Thursday that it has dropped around 6,000 bombs on the Gaza Strip since October 7.
The helicopter and fighter jet strikes were carried out against 3,600 Hamas targets, it said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The air force said these targets included command centers, military infrastructure, weapons production sites, rocket systems, intelligence assets, and Hamas leaders.
"We will continue to attack forcefully and relentlessly, as long as necessary," the statement added.
—Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) October 12, 2023
The IAF released aerial footage of several such strikes, showing missiles obliterating several multi-story buildings.
The air force said Israeli fighter jets had attacked five residences used by "Hamas terror operatives," including a monitoring situation room and a house used by the brother of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Other videos showed strikes on vehicles, and what Israel said were a storage area for naval weapons and homes of senior Hamas operatives.
At least 1,537 Palestinians have been killed, while 6,612 others have been injured by Israeli strikes since October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Thursday evening. Many strike victims in the Gaza Strip were children, aid groups such as Doctors Without Borders have said.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip with air strikes in retaliation to a series of sudden attacks by Hamas on dozens of Israeli towns.
The October 7 attacks killed around 1,200 Israelis and injured another 3,000, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday. Hamas fighters also took around 100 hostages back to Gaza.
The Israeli military's response has been a full siege of the Gaza Strip, an area of around 17 square miles with a population of around 2 million people. Access to electricity, fuel, medicine, and food has been cut off by Israel, and repeated Israeli aerial strikes have leveled apartment buildings, mosques, and other multistory complexes.
Meanwhile, an estimated 300,000 Israeli reservists have been mobilized for what's anticipated to be a major ground offensive into the Gaza Strip.