IDF strikes PIJ terrorist in central Gaza, thwarting ‘imminent attack’

The Israel Defense Forces struck a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative in central Gaza on Saturday night, according to the military foiling an “imminent terrorist attack” against its troops.

The strike was carried out in the Nuseirat camp, according to the IDF.

IDF Southern Command forces remain deployed in Gaza in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and “will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” according to the military statement.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier on Saturday that 60% of Hamas’s terrorist tunnels still remain in the Gaza Strip and that the IDF is prioritizing their destruction in the territory under its control.

“The most urgent moral mission is, of course, the return of all the hostages and the fallen to their homes, and we will do everything to fulfill this sacred and critical mission,” Katz tweeted.

But the “overarching strategic mission” is the demilitarization of Gaza through the complete destruction of the terror tunnels, along with the disarming of Hamas, Katz stressed.

The minister said that demolishing the tunnels in the so-called Yellow Zone that runs along the north, south and east of Gaza is being carried out in full cooperation with U.S. representatives, “from the Vice President and the Secretaries of State and Defense, through the envoys of the U.S. President, to the commanders of CENTCOM [U.S. Central Command].”

Katz added that discussions with Washington involve finding ways to implement President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, to address the dismantling of tunnels and disarming of Hamas in the remaining Gaza territory, “under [U.S.] responsibility.”

The first stage of the ceasefire deal involved the exchange of the remaining living and dead hostages from Gaza for Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli prisons. The IDF has also withdrawn to the Yellow Line as part of the agreement, whose second phase regarding the disarming of Hamas is slated to commence.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Israel on Friday that there is no viable alternative to Trump’s Middle East peace plan, expressing “healthy optimism” that it will be fully implemented.

“There is no Plan B,” Rubio said at the new Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in Kiryat Gat. “This is the best plan. It’s the only plan. It’s one that we think can succeed. It’s one that we believe is the way to success, as impossible and unimaginable as it may have been.”