Israel Air Force fighter jets attacked 250 terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, including two rocket launchers used in Tuesday’s barrage on the Tel Aviv area.
In Deir al-Balah in the central Strip, the IAF killed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists and destroyed terror infrastructure. Six were killed and many injured by an IAF strike on Wednesday morning in the Nuseirat camp, some three miles northeast of Deir al-Balah, according to Palestinian reports.
Israeli forces were also attacking the Jabalia refugee camp, Beit Lahia, Tel al-Za’tar and the outskirts of Beit Hanun in the north of the Strip early Wednesday, according to Palestinian reports.
Ground forces also continued to locate weapons, tunnel shafts, explosives and terror infrastructure. Israel Defense Forces soldiers struck an armed terrorist cell operating adjacent to a school in the northern Gaza Strip, and destroyed a tunnel shaft in the area.
According to Arab reports, IDF armored bulldozers were operating in eastern Khan Yunis. The bulldozers are directed to tear up roads to uncover IEDs and level buildings to expose Hamas terror tunnel shafts so as to provide clearance for ground troops.
A red alert siren sounded in Kibbutz Re’im near the Gaza border on Wednesday, close to where Hamas terrorists slaughtered hundreds of Israeli civilians at the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7.
A man around 60 years of age was lightly wounded by rocket shrapnel during one of several attacks, according to the Magen David Adom emergency medical service.
Later on Wednesday, at least 10 rockets were fired at Beersheva. Multiple Iron Dome interceptions were seen over the northern Negev city.
Alarms also sounded in the towns of Margaliot, Matat and Malkia close to the Lebanon border late Wednesday afternoon.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
Names of three slain soldiers released
The IDF on Wednesday morning released for publication the names of two more casualties: Maj. (res.) Yehonatan Malka, 23, from Be’ersheva, killed in action in Gaza, and Lt. Col. (res.) Yochai Gur Hershberg, 52, from Philip Farms, who died in a car accident in southern Israel.
On Wednesday night, the military announced the death of Sgt. Maj. (res.) Adi Shani, 39, from Tzur Yitzhak. Shani, a reconnaissance soldier in Logistics Unit 6036, died during a battle in Gaza.
At least 95 soldiers have been killed in action in Gaza, at the Lebanon border and in Judea and Samaria since the start of the IDF ground operation in Gaza on Oct. 27; 411 Israeli soldiers have died since the war started on Oct. 7.
On that day, Hamas terrorists stormed across the Gaza border, murdering more than 1,200 people, wounding over 5,000 others and taking some 240 hostages, 138 of whom are still believed to be in captivity in the Strip.
Senior Hamas officials in tunnels
The IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) on Wednesday published a photo of senior Hamas commanders gathered in a tunnel under Gaza, many of whom were killed by an Israeli strike.
Senior members of Hamas’s Northern Gaza Brigade are pictured. Five of them were killed in an Israeli airstrike as they hid in a tunnel located under civilian residences and near the Indonesian Hospital, according to the IDF.
Israeli forces killed the brigade’s commander, Ahmed al-Ghandoor, the deputy brigade commander, Wael Rajab, and other senior operatives, including the commander of the brigade’s support battalion, the head of the technical and operational support department and the observation officer for the northern Gaza Strip.
The IDF also published a video of Rajab walking through a Gaza tunnel.
Ghandoor was responsible for the direction and management of all Hamas terrorist activities in the northern area of the Gaza Strip, according to the IDF.
The Northern Brigade’s ability to function had been “significantly damaged” by the death of the commanders, the IDF said.
At the same time these Hamas commanders were eliminated, the commanders of the Beit Lahia Battalion and the central Jabalia Battalion were also killed.
In addition, IDF soldiers killed four battalion commanders from Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade, its largest. Among them were the commanders of the Sabra, Shati, Darj Tafah and Shejaiya battalions.
The IDF reported that the Sabra Battalion had been “significantly damaged.”
Israeli forces also took control of the Shati Battalion’s central strongholds. That battalion is responsible for the central headquarters of Hamas, including at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The heads of its anti-tank, air and naval formations were also killed, according to the IDF.
IDF apologizes for killing Lebanese soldier
Israel on Tuesday apologized for killing a Lebanese Army soldier during a strike on a Hezbollah-linked target in Lebanon earlier in the day.
The Lebanese Army said that a military position in the Adaysseh area was “bombarded by the Israeli enemy,” killing one soldier and wounding three others.
According to the IDF, Israeli forces “were working to neutralize a tangible threat that was identified” at a Hezbollah launch and observation post along the border.
“The IDF received a report that a number of soldiers in Lebanon’s army were injured during the attack. Lebanese army forces were not the target of the attack. The IDF is sorry for the incident, and it will be investigated,” the military said in a statement.
It is the first such incident in Lebanon since Hezbollah increased its attacks on Israeli territory after the Oct. 7 massacre and during the ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza.