More than 40 Hamas terrorists were killed during military operations in Gaza over the past day, the Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday.
Operatives who were killed included commanders and members of “Hamas’s various combat arrays,” including its weapons and rocket division, as well as the terror group’s propaganda unit, the IDF said.
In northern Gaza, the army launched targeted raids in Beit Lahia aimed at destroying terror infrastructure there, according to the IDF statement. During the operation, troops of the Gaza Division located three rocket launchers, one of which was loaded “to be launched immediately.”
Meanwhile, in the central Strip, reservists of the military’s 252nd Division launched several raids in Gaza City’s Sabra and Zeitoun neighborhoods, as well as on the outskirts of Nuseirat. The military said the soldiers located and destroyed several terrorist tunnels in the area.
During operations in areas surrounding Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, troops eliminated Hamas operatives who were operating from a shaft while locating “many weapons” used by the terrorist organization.
On Sept. 12, the IDF declared it defeated Hamas’s Rafah brigade after four months of targeted raids in the city near the border with Egypt.
Troops destroyed some 80% of tunnels located near and beneath the Philadelphi Corridor, the statement noted, using the IDF’s name for the 8.5-mile-long land strip along the border with Egypt’s Sinai Desert. It added that forces continue to discover and destroy underground routes.
The Rafah brigade and its four battalions—Yabna (south), east Rafah, Tel al-Sultan (west) and Shaboura (north)—was the terror group’s final functioning brigade, according to past Israel military assessments.
Ahead of the current escalation with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the IDF moved its 98th Division from Gaza to the country’s northern border.
IDF Northern Command head Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin said on Wednesday that the army needs to be prepared for a potential ground invasion of Lebanon to remove the threat posed by Hezbollah terrorists there.
Hezbollah has attacked Israel nearly daily since Oct. 8, firing thousands of rockets, missiles and drones. The attacks have killed more than 40 people and caused widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the ongoing violence.
