Over 40 Hamas operatives killed in past day as IDF launches fresh raids in Gaza
Israeli troops killed more than 40 Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip while fresh raids were launched across the enclave, the Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday.
The military said the operatives who were killed over the past day were field commanders and members of other arrays in the terror group, including its rocket division and propaganda unit.
In the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF said it launched a new pinpoint operation in Beit Lahiya, aimed at destroying Hamas infrastructure there.
Troops with the Gaza Division located three rocket launchers in the Beit Lahiya area, one of which was loaded with at least three rockets, the army said.
Palestinian medics said a woman was killed in an airstrike on a house in the town earlier on Tuesday.
In central Gaza, the IDF said reservists with the 252nd Division launched several raids in Gaza City’s Sabra and Zeitoun neighborhoods, as well as on the outskirts of Nuseirat. The military said that the reservists located and destroyed several tunnels in the area.
In the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF’s 162nd Division continued to operate in Rafah and the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border. In Rafah, the IDF said troops killed several gunmen spotted in a tunnel shaft, and located many weapons.
Medics said at least eight Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli strikes on two houses in Rafah. One of those strikes killed a woman and her children, they added.
In another attack in Bureij, one of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, five Palestinians were killed in a house hit by an Israeli missile, medics said.
The ongoing war began on October 7 when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern communities, slaughtering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.
Israel launched its military operation, which has stretched for over 11 months, aiming to eliminate Hamas and bring back those kidnapped. In recent days, the military’s focus has shifted north to Lebanon as Israel began a sustained offensive against Hezbollah’s missile capabilities.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 41,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 348.
Source » timesofisrael.com
