GAZA, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli military announced Wednesday that it killed the chief of the Hamas rocket unit in an operation in the central Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on social media platform X that IDF forces, based on information from the Military Intelligence Directorate and Shin Bet security service, killed Amar Atiya Darwish Aladini, who was in charge of the Hamas rocket unit in central Gaza.

He said Aladini had been working for Hamas for decades and was active in the current war, noting that the man was responsible for equipping rockets for the faction and launching rocket attacks as early as 2008 against the IDF operation Cast Lead in Gaza.

The statement claimed that Aladini played a major role in the "bloody" Hamas attack on Oct. 7 last year, during which he "promoted intensive firing" towards Israel's maneuvering forces while directing rocket launches targeting Tel Aviv and other Israeli border towns.

There has been no comment from Hamas on Aladini's killing.

Adraee added that over the past few days, the Israeli air force attacked several Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in northern Gaza, including apartments used by "saboteurs" as hideouts, warehouses for storing combat equipment, launching pits and tunnels.

Meanwhile, in another statement, the Israeli military said its troops raided "terrorist infrastructures" in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis, arresting 250 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members and seizing combat equipment.

It claimed that some of the seized personnel had participated in the Oct. 7 attack, adding that in a joint operation in the Hamad City neighborhood west of Khan Younis, Israeli commando units and the 13th Marine Commando arrested "many saboteurs," including the chief of a Hamas sniper cell and two Hamas team leaders. Enditem

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