Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) continues to operate on the ground in the Gaza Strip, taking losses and killing more Palestinians.
In a statement released on February 4, the IDF said that Paratroopers Brigade raided a multistory building that was used by Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade commander to manage the fighting against Israel in the western part of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. In the building, troops located weapons and military equipment.
In a separate raid in the city, Israeli troops found a cache of rocket-propelled grenades inside an apartment, according to the IDF.
In addition, the IDF said that the Paratroopers Brigade also killed several Hamas fighters in close-quarters combat over the past day, as well as a fighter who hurled two grenades and had approached soldiers with a knife.
Meanwhile, the Givati Brigade, also operating in Khan Younis, killed a fighter that approached them and directed an airstrike on two more fighters heading toward a building, the IDF said.
Also in Khan Younis, the IDF said that a fighter jet struck and killed a sniper of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second largest faction in Gaza.
Meanwhile, in the northern part of Gaza, the IDF said that the 401st Armored Brigade killed seven Hamas fighters over the past day.
According to the IDF, the Israeli Air Force carried out several strikes across Gaza hitting targets including Hamas rocket launching positions and other infrastructure.
The Navy also carried out strikes along the Strip’s coast, aiding the ground forces operating in the area, the IDF said, adding that Navy vessels targeted several Hamas and Islamic Jihad sites, including a building where operatives were gathered.
Separately, the IDF announced that a reservist from the 924th engineering battalion of the Harel Brigade was killed amid fighting in southern Gaza. He was the 225th Israeli soldier to have been killed in Israel’s ground operation in the Strip, so far.
While the IDF claims its troops are only targeting Hamas and other factions in Gaza, the death toll in the Strip continues to rise.
Gaza’s health ministry said on February 4 that at least 92 people had been killed overnight, including in what the group’s media office said was an Israeli bombardment of a kindergarten in Rafah in the southern part of the Strip, where displaced people were sheltering.
Despite recent reports of progress in the ongoing indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, the IDF is not slowing down operations. A ceasefire agreement does not appear to be near.
