IDF says strikes destroyed two Hamas weapons depots in Bureij and Gaza City
The IDF and Shin Bet said the sites held rockets, rifles and explosives. Separate witness reporting described warnings, damaged homes and displaced families.
Israeli strikes destroyed two weapons depots used by Hamas' military wing in the Bureij area of central Gaza and the Gaza City area on Thursday night, October 29, the IDF and Shin Bet said. Their announcement on Friday, October 30, described stores containing dozens of weapons and said civilians had received advance warnings.
The account places the strikes within Israel's stated effort to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its military capabilities during the ceasefire. Identification of the buildings as Hamas depots, their contents and their destruction are the Israeli security services' claims.
What the military said was stored
The joint announcement listed RPGs, explosive devices, rockets, Kalashnikov rifles, grenades, magazines and other combat equipment. It did not provide a separate inventory for each location or identify the buildings' addresses. The IDF's Hebrew operational update recorded the announcement at 13:31 on October 30 and explicitly described the attacks as having taken place the previous Thursday night.
The distinction matters because the date of an announcement is not necessarily the date of the operation. These were two reported storage targets in different parts of Gaza, not a newly announced ground operation. The statement did not identify people killed or wounded at either depot.
Warnings and evacuations reported
The military said advance warnings, precision munitions and aerial surveillance were used to reduce the risk to civilians. It did not specify how many people received warnings, how much time they had to leave or whether everybody in the affected areas was able to evacuate.
Separately, Anadolu reported on October 29 that strikes hit buildings in Bureij and the Safatawi area of Gaza City after evacuation warnings. Citing witnesses and local sources, the agency described residents leaving in darkness, a five-storey building destroyed in Bureij and damage to neighbouring homes. Its sources reported no deaths or injuries in those two strikes at that time.
The locations and timing overlap with the military announcement, but Anadolu's account did not independently establish what was inside the buildings. Its report of no casualties was preliminary reporting, not a comprehensive assessment of the effects of the strikes.
The ceasefire and the dispute over weapons
The US-brokered ceasefire began on October 10, 2025. Reuters reported on October 6, 2026 that major goals, including Hamas disarmament and further Israeli withdrawal, remained stalled. Israel says its continuing strikes target attacks and rearmament efforts; Hamas disputes those accusations.
In Friday's depot announcement, the Israeli security services said they would continue to act against attempts to restore armed groups' capabilities or accumulate weapons intended for use against Israeli troops. They also said forces under Southern Command remained deployed in accordance with the agreement. Those statements describe Israel's position, rather than settling the parties' disagreement over compliance with the ceasefire.
What the announcement establishes
The central development is the military's report of two destroyed depots and its stated effort to interrupt weapons accumulation. The available announcement provides no site-by-site account of damage, no detailed explanation of how the targets were identified and no independently documented inventory of their contents.
Witness reporting adds a separate account of the disruption facing residents in the same areas. Keeping the two accounts distinct allows the reported military purpose and civilian consequences to be understood without treating either as proof of details it does not establish.
