Sirens sounded in Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Monday morning as Israeli forces continued to attack Hamas terror targets in the Strip.
Israel Air Force strikes killed three Hamas company commanders over the past 24 hours, in targeted strikes based on intelligence.
Another strike eliminated a terrorist cell and hit a weapons depot its members were hiding in after IDF troops identified the cell entering the building.
מכלול האש של צוות קרב חטיבת הנח"ל זיהה וחיסל חוליית מחבלים בעת שנכנסו למבנה סמוך. כתוצאה מהתקיפה שבוצעה על ידי כלי טיס, המחבלים חוסלו והושמד מחסן האמל"ח בו הם הסתתרו pic.twitter.com/tFEohGHeWO
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 20, 2023
“IDF troops continue to operate in the Gaza Strip, directing aircraft to strike terrorists, terrorist infrastructure and locating weapons and military equipment,” the army said.
The IDF released for publication on Monday the names of three more Israeli casualties in Gaza.
Sgt. Dvir Barazani, 20, from Jerusalem, and Sgt. Yinon Tamir, 20, from Pardes Hana-Karkur, both of the 890th Battalion, Paratroopers Brigade, were killed during operational activity in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the IDF.
Sgt. Eitan Dishon, 21, from Jerusalem, of the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, fell in battle in the northern Gaza Strip.
At least 72 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 into the Gaza Strip on Oct. 27; 388 Israeli soldiers have died since the war started on Oct. 7.
On that day, thousands of Hamas terrorists stormed the Gaza border and invaded the northwestern Negev, murdering 1,200 Israelis, wounding more than 5,000 and taking some 240 people back to the Strip as hostages.
Israel and Hamas have both rejected a Jordanian newspaper report that a ceasefire would begin on Monday, accompanied by the release of some hostages, The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday morning.
The Al-Ghad newspaper reported that a five-day ceasefire would start at 11 a.m. on Monday and that 50 hostages would be released in exchange for an equal number of Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli prisons.
“There is nothing as of now,” an Israeli source said, according to the Post.
“There is no truth to what the media reported, attributed to sources in Hamas, regarding an exchange deal starting today,” said Izzat al-Risheq, a senior member of Hamas, according to the report.
The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Israel and Hamas are close to a U.S.-brokered agreement that would see dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza freed in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting.
