Tel Aviv [Israel], August 18 (ANI): The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) late Saturday night announced that they struck an armed Hamas terrorist cell that was operating while using a hospital as a shelter.

As per the IDF, the terrorists had used the hospital compound as a storage site for weapons.

In a post on X, the IDF said, 'STRUCK: An armed Hamas terrorist cell operating just outside the Al-Maamadani Hospital in Zaytun, central Gaza, was struck by an IAF aircraft. The terrorists stored weapons & equipped themselves with weapons at the hospital compound while using the hospital as shelter, another example of Hamas cynically and brutally exploiting civilians and hospitals.'

https://x.com/IDF/status/1957113603959476550

Meanwhile, the Israeli police clashed with protesters who demonstrated for the release of hostages, Al Jazeera reported.

At least four protesters were arrested, and videos circulating online showed police officers violently confronting people as other demonstrators chanted and banged on drums. They protested in front of the headquarters of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the al-Quds Brigades, says that it targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and vehicles north of Khan Younis city, in southern Gaza.

In a statement on Telegram, the group said they bombed the Be'eri and Shawqida settlements with a 'number of rockets in response to the Zionist enemy's crimes against our people,' as reported by Al Jazeera.

It added that yesterday, fighters destroyed an Israeli military vehicle through the use of an explosive during the army's incursion into the Hassan al-Banna square in the Zeitoun neighbourhood south of Gaza City.

The Palestinians organised another march in the occupied West Bank's Ramallah to protest Israeli attacks and the starvation of Gaza, while also holding banners commemorating Al Jazeera's assassinated journalists and longtime prisoner Marwan Barghouti, as per Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said that its air force intercepted a rocket launched from the central Gaza Strip towards an open area in the Gaza envelope, Al Jazeera reported. (ANI)