Soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces 188th “Barak” Armored Brigade recently expanded the buffer zone between the Gaza Strip and the Jewish state’s western Negev communities, the IDF stated on Tuesday.
The troops dismantled over 1,200 terrorist infrastructure sites—both above and below ground—in the area of the southern Gaza town of Khuza’a (aka Khirbat Ikhzaa), which served as one of the staging areas for the Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Hundreds of Hamas terrorists emerged from this area and infiltrated into communities in the south of the Western Negev during the brutal massacre of Oct. 7,” the IDF noted in its statement.
During combat engineering operations and through Israeli Air Force strikes, dozens of gunmen were eliminated in Khuza’a, from which civilians have been evacuated for months, according to the IDF.
“Hamas took advantage of the residents’ evacuation to embed itself in the neighborhood,” stated Lt. Col. “D,” a battalion commander in the 188th Brigade. “Terrorist infrastructures, the dismantling of structures and tunnel shafts—troops of the battalion operated to dismantle terrorist infrastructure throughout the entire area.”
As part of the operation, troops from the 188th Brigade and the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit dismantled a terror tunnel route spanning 500 meters (1,640 feet) long and 25 meters (82 feet) deep.
“The IDF will continue to operate against terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip in order to ensure the security of the civilians of the State of Israel,” the IDF concluded.
Over the past 24 hours, the IAF struck dozens of terrorist targets in the Strip, including gunmen, military structures, tunnels, weapons storage facilities and other structures used by Hamas, the IDF said in a separate statement.
In one incident, ground troops identified two terrorists disguised as women, “carrying bags from a military structure used by the Hamas terrorist organization to advance terror attacks against Israeli civilians.”
An IDF aircraft “struck and eliminated” the terrorists, the military said.
In addition, soldiers located weapons, including launcher barrels, that were used by Hamas and posed a threat to Israeli troops and civilians.
“Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” launched on May 16, is a wide-scale IDF campaign targeting remaining Hamas and Islamic Jihad strongholds.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the campaign is aimed at establishing lasting security control throughout all of Gaza.
