Hamas security chief killed; another IDF soldier falls in Gaza

Israel Defense Forces Staff Sgt. Shahar Cohen Mivtach, 22, was killed on Sunday during ground operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the military announced on Monday.

Mivtach, from the 9th Battalion of the 401st Armored Brigade, died in battle in the northern Gaza Strip, bringing the IDF death toll during the ground offensive to at least 30. The IDF has so far released the names of 348 Israeli soldiers who have died since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.

Also on Monday, the IDF announced that Jamal Musa, the head of Hamas’s special security operations in the Gaza Strip, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike.

In 1993, Musa carried out an attack on Israeli forces patrolling the Strip, according to the IDF.

Israel has carried out more than 450 airstrikes in Gaza in the past 24 hours, targeting tunnels, terrorist cells, military compounds, observation posts and anti-tank missile launch sites, according to the IDF.

Israel Navy forces also struck Hamas command centers, missile launch sites and observation posts.

Ground forces took over a Hamas compound containing observation posts, training areas and tunnel networks.

Monday marked the 31st day of “Operation Swords of Iron,” launched by Israel in response to Hamas’s invasion of the western Negev on Oct. 7. On that date, accompanied by massive rocket barrages, thousands of terrorists crossed the border from the Gaza Strip, murdering 1,400 persons, wounding over 5,000 others and taking more than 200 hostages back to Gaza.

Since Oct. 7, terrorist groups in Gaza have fired more than 8,000 rockets indiscriminately at Israeli population centers.

The Israeli military has stated that its aim is to destroy Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in the Gaza Strip and for weeks has been warning Gaza civilians to relocate south temporarily.

While Hamas has been attempting to prevent Gazans from leaving the north of the Strip, hundreds of thousands have evacuated to the safe zone past the Wadi Gaza, and the IDF announced that for the third consecutive day on Monday that it would open a corridor for civilians to escape south.

“O residents of Gaza, I would like to inform you that although Hamas is harming the ongoing humanitarian efforts on behalf of the people of Gaza and is using you as human shields, today the IDF will once again allow passage on the Salah al-Din Road between 10:00 AM and 14:00 PM,” Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, tweeted.

“For your safety, take this next opportunity to move south beyond Wadi Gaza. If you care about yourself and your loved ones, head south according to our instructions. Rest assured that Hamas leaders have already taken care of defending themselves.”

The IDF on Monday afternoon published aerial footage of Gaza residents walking southward along the humanitarian corridor that the Israeli military established on Salah al-Din Road to ensure that they remain out of harm’s way.