The Israeli Air Force carried out strikes across the Gaza Strip on Sunday in response to ceasefire violations, killing terrorists, including one who infiltrated the Jewish state as part of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
The military said in a statement on Sunday night that that it “views any violation of the ceasefire agreement with utmost severity,” and vowed to continue operating against “any attempt by terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to carry out attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel.”
The latest airstrikes came after “several armed terrorists took cover under debris east of the Yellow Line and adjacent to IDF troops, likely after exiting underground infrastructure in the area,” the army stated.
The targeted terrorists were said to have been attempting “to reestablish the military capabilities of the terror organizations in the Gaza Strip and to advance terrorist attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel.”
In one of the airstrikes, the IDF killed terrorist Ahmad Bayouk, who infiltrated the Re’im military base during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, the military said, sharing a photo of Bayouk inside Israeli territory.
As part of the Oct. 7 attacks, terrorists stormed the Israel Defense Forces’ Re’im base, headquarters of the Gaza Division, killing several troops during hours-long firefights before Israeli soldiers regained control.
Sunday night’s IDF statement also confirmed that Azem Abu Huli, head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Nukhba Array in Gaza’s Central Camps sector, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Feb. 9.
Among his responsibilities, Abu Huli was responsible for “procuring weapons for the brigade’s terrorists and advancing and carrying out attacks against IDF troops,” the army said. He also commanded Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists who breached the border on Oct. 7, 2023.
Throughout the recent war, the Iranian-backed terrorist commander “oversaw the training of the brigade’s Nukhba terrorists, including training for scenarios involving the abduction of IDF soldiers,” the IDF added.
The Yellow Line
On Saturday, the IDF killed at least two terrorists believed to have emerged from a tunnel in northern Gaza in violation of the ceasefire.
The terrorist cell was said to have taken cover under debris east of the ceasefire-instituted Yellow Line, posing an imminent threat to Israeli soldiers stationed adjacent to the rubble.
“Following the identification, the IDF struck the armed terrorists and eliminated two of them, likely eliminating additional terrorists,” stated the military, adding that soldiers were still carrying out searches in the area “to locate and eliminate the remaining terrorists” of the cell.
Phase 2 of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan for the Gaza Strip calls for Hamas terrorists to lay down arms and the deployment of an International Stabilization Force to the Strip.
Trump warned on Jan. 21 that the terrorist group would be “blown away very quickly” if it fails to lay down weapons during the current phase.
Speaking at a question-and-answer session in Davos, Switzerland, after his address to the World Economic Forum, Trump said Hamas had “agreed to give up their weapons” as part of his peace proposal.
However, Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official, on Feb. 11 that the terrorists would not lay down their weapons until Israel’s “elimination.
“We have been very clear with mediators, and in our messages passed on to the relevant parties, that the matter of Palestinian weapons is linked to the presence or elimination of the occupation,” stated Hamdan, referencing Israel in an interview with Al Jazeera.
“To this day, the Palestinian national motto states that the occupation needs to be eliminated,” he said. “The weapons are legal according to international law, and by virtue of the will of the Palestinian people, so these weapons will not be laid down until their goal is achieved.”
Hamas’s official charter calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and references parts of the Quran that call for Muslims to kill Jews everywhere.
