Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) continues to operate in the Gaza Strip despite facing fierce resistance from the Hamas Movement and other Palestinian armed factions.
On December 22, the IDF said that troops of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade operating in central Gaza’s Juhor ad-Dik located a cache of weapons and long-range rocket launchers used in recent attacks on Israel.
The rocket launchers were later destroyed in an airstrike, the IDF said in a statement. It also said the 7th Armored Brigade operating in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis city located weapons inside residential homes.
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- Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
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- Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
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- Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
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- Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
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- Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
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- Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
In Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp, the IDF said the 14th Reserve Armored Brigade raided a school and also located weapons.
And the 179th Reserve Armored Brigade operating south of the city, found further caches of weapons in homes, along with a rocket launcher, according to the IDF.
Separately, the IDF announced that combat engineers operating with the Kiryati Brigade located and destroyed a tunnel shaft from which Hamas fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades at troops.
Fighter jets also struck a Hamas fighter, spotted by the 215th Artillery Regiment, while planting explosive devices to be used against troops. Several other Hamas cells were targeted across the Strip, according to the IDF, which also said the Navy carried out strikes over the past day, to aid ground forces.
A day earlier, the IDF said that it had blown up a major Hamas tunnel network hidden under Gaza City’s Palestine Square. No evidence of the tunnel network was presented. The destruction of the square was seen by some observers as a punitive action.
The IDF sustained some losses during its recent operations in Gaza. On December 22, it announced the death of two troops, a soldier of the Combat Engineering Corps’ 7071st Battalion and a cadet in the Bahad 1 officers’ school’s Gefen Battalion who previously served in the Air Force’s Unit 669. Three other troops were wounded.
The death of the two has brought the number of Israeli troops killed since the beginning of ground operations in Gaza to 139.
Despite advancing in several parts of Gaza, the IDF is still facing fierce resistance from Hamas and other Palestinian armed factions. In addition, rocket attacks from the Strip are being reported on a daily basis. Overall, the Israeli war is yet to achieve any of its main goals.
