The Israel Defense Forces issued evacuation orders for the civilian population of the Ajalaa neighborhood in northern Khan Yunis on Sunday morning ahead of a counterterror operation there.
Residents and displaced persons are being called to relocate away from block 36 of the humanitarian zone after intelligence indicated that “significant terrorist activity” was being conducted there, including rocket fire at Israeli territory.
Early-warning alerts were being sent to noncombatants in the form of SMS messages, recorded voice messages, phone calls, media broadcasts in Arabic and flyers.
“We inform all residents and displaced persons who are still in the Jalaa neighborhood that the IDF will act forcefully against the terrorist organizations there,” tweeted Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, head of the Arab Media Branch in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
“For your own safety, you must evacuate immediately to the newly created humanitarian zone. The area you are in is considered a dangerous combat zone.”
The IDF also sent messages to the Gaza health care system and the international community that there is no need to evacuate hospitals in the area, Ynet reported.
Israel’s military said on Friday that troops had started counterterror activities in the Khan Yunis area of the southern Gaza Strip following intelligence reports about renewed enemy activity there.
Soldiers under the command of the 98th Paratroopers Division began the offensive in the former Hamas stronghold, killing terrorists while locating and dismantling weaponry and terrorist infrastructure.
In addition, the Israeli Air Force struck more than 30 Hamas targets in Khan Yunis, including weapons storage facilities and areas where terrorists gather. Several terrorists were killed in the strikes, including some who planned and carried out mortar and sniper fire at IDF troops and Israeli civilians.
The IDF said on Saturday night that soldiers of the 7th Brigade and the Yahalom Unit located weapons inside an underground tunnel in the area, including rifles and explosives.
Furthermore, a terrorist who participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel was killed in an aerial strike, as well as several Hamas commanders.
Israeli forces are also continuing operations in Rafah in southern Gaza along the Egyptian border, including a strike on an area from which projectiles were launched at Kibbutz Kissufim on Saturday.
Nineteen Hamas, Islamic Jihad terrorists killed in school mosque
Also on Saturday, in a joint operation the IDF and Israel Security Agency conducted a precision strike on a Hamas command and control center embedded in a mosque in the Al-Taba’een school compound in Gaza City.
At least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were killed in the strike, according to the IDF.
Immediately after the attack, the Hamas-run civil defense agency claimed that over 90 people were killed in the strike.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters on Saturday that “there are far too many civilians who have been killed” in Gaza when asked, during an event in Phoenix, for her reaction to the Israeli airstrike earlier in the day.
However, the IDF refuted the claim.
“The strike was carried out using three precise munitions, which, according to professional analysis, cannot cause the amount of damage that is being reported by the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza. Furthermore, no severe damage was caused to the compound where the terrorists were situated,” the IDF said.
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of a small warhead, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information,” the military added.
IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a video statement about the incident:
“After we received clear intelligence of the threat posed by these terrorists, and in accordance with international humanitarian law, we took numerous steps to mitigate the risk to civilians. The IDF conducted a precision strike against the terrorists in one specific building of the compound—an area where according to our intelligence, no women and children were present.”
Hagari also said that that intelligence indicated that there was a “high probability” that the strike had killed the commander of Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade, Ashraf Juda.
“Increasingly in recent months Hamas has focused on exploiting school buildings, often where civilians are sheltering inside, to use them as military facilities, command and control centers, for storing weapons, and to execute terrorist attacks,” said Hagari.
