Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on February 9 that it had carried out more operations against the Hamas Movement across the Gaza Strip.
In the western part of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the Commando Brigade raided sites of Hamas , according to the IDF. A drone also spotted a Hamas cell placing explosive devices near the commando troops, and within minutes, an aircraft struck and killed the fighters.
Moreover, the IDF said that troops of the Border Defense Corps’ 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit spotted two armed Hamas fighters in Khan Younis and directed an airstrike on them.
The Paratroopers Brigade, also operating in western Khan Younis, killed some 15 Hamas fighters during raids on the terror group’s sites over the past day, according to the IDF.
In another part of Khan Younis, the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade directed airstrikes on several booby-trapped buildings, as well as raided several Hamas sites and seized weapons and equipment.
Meanwhile, in the city of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade spotted a group of gunmen near a Hamas position, the IDF said. Airstrikes were carried out against the cell, as well as two more gunmen spotted in the area.
Besides its operations in Khan Younis, the IDF has been also preparing to launch a ground offensive in the area of Rafah on the border with Egypt by intensifying bombardment on residential areas there.
At least nine people, including women and children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza and Rafah overnight, the Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip said on February 9.
One of the airstrikes hit a residential building in Rafah, as well as a kindergarten-turned-shelter for the displaced in the central town of Zawaida.
More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled to Rafah in accordance with evacuation orders given by the IDF amid the expanding ground operations in the Strip. Israeli evacuation orders now cover two-thirds of the small Palestinian enclave.
Despite the increasing number of civilian casualties, Israel appears to be determined to attack Rafah. This will likely provoke Egypt.
