Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
On December 27, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that it had carried out strikes from the air, ground, and sea against some 200 targets of the Hamas Movement in the Gaza Strip over the past day, as fighting continues.
In Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, reservists of the Yiftah Brigade identified Hamas fighters running between buildings then called in an airstrike, the IDF said, adding that the airstrike led to secondary blasts which indicates the area was booby-trapped.
Also in northern Gaza, the IDF said that troops of the 261st Brigade spotted two Hamas fighters entering a vehicle and driving to a building used as a weapons depot. The troops then called in an airstrike against the fighters, and later a fighter jet struck the building.
In the Gaza City neighborhoods of Daraj and Tuffah, t troops of the 401st Armored Brigade identified a Hamas fighter wielding a short-range anti-tank missile. Tanks in the area shelled the operative before he could open fire, according to the IDF.
The IDF also released video footage of the Commando Brigade’s Maglan, Egoz, and Duvdevan units operating in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The IDF said that the commando units are fighting Hamas “deep within Khan Younis,” killing many fighters and destroying the terror group’s infrastructure in the process, including tunnel shafts.
The three units carried out dozens of strikes using guided munitions during their operations in Khan Younis, according to the IDF.
Separately, the IDF announced that it had launched ground operations against Hamas in the town of Khirbat Ikhzaa, on the outskirts of Khan Younis.
In an official message to his troops, the commander of the Gaza Division, Brigade General Avi Rosenfeld, dubbed the operation “Oz and Nir”, after the settlement of Nir Oz that was attacked by Hamas fighters on October 7.
Meanwhile, Hamas’ military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, released a video showing recent attacks on IDF vehicles and troops in the Shejaiya neighborhood. Another video released by the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, showed the wreckage of a Skylark 3 reconnaissance drone that was shot down recently over Gaza.
According to the last update by the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, Israeli strikes and ground operations in the Strip have so far claimed the lives of at least 21,110 people, about two thirds of them women and children. More than 55,000 others have been wounded.
Despite sustaining some serious losses -at least 164 Israeli troops have been killed since the start of ground operations in Gaza-, Israel appears to be determined to go on with its war on the Strip where more than two million Palestinians live. The United States continues to show complete support for the war.
