Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
Israeli warplanes struck over 160 targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on May 19, as its troops were advancing in the Palestinian enclave in a large-scale offensive codenamed “Operation Gideon’s Chariots”.
In a brief statement, the military said that the targets included cells of fighters, anti-tank missile launch sites, tunnels, a weapons depot, buildings used by “terror groups,” booby-trapped structures and a command center.
The Qatari Al-Jazeera news channel reported the death of at least 32 Palestinians in Gaza, including women and children, since the early morning.
Separately, the IDF announced that it had destroyed a 200-meter long tunnel in the area of Rafah in the southern part of the Strip. The military said that during the demolition of the tunnel, troops killed a cell of Hamas fighters which was hiding inside the underground passage.
The military later called on all Palestinians living in and around the large southern Gaza city of Khan Younis to leave their homes, warning that it would launch an “unprecedented attack” on the area. The evacuation order covered all of Khan Younis as well as the suburbs of Bani Suheila and Abasan.
“The IDF will launch an unprecedented attack to destroy the capabilities of terror organizations in this area,” said the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, noting that all of Khan Younis was considered “a dangerous combat zone.”
Prior to the evacuation order, Al-Jazeera and several Gaza-based news sources reported that Israeli special forces entered Khan Younis and killed a senior commander of the al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees.
The group confirmed the death of commander Ahmad Sarhan, who was responsible for the group’s “special operations.” It claimed that Israeli special forces killed Sarhan after failing in an attempt to capture him alive.
Photos posted to social networks showed a wagon with a secret compartment that was reportedly used by Israeli special forces during the operation in Khan Younis.
Click to see full-size image. Via Telegram.
Click to see full-size image. Via Telegram.
The IDF began preparing for Operation Gideon’s Chariots earlier this month. Thousands of reservists were called up and elite formations were deployed to Gaza from other fronts.
Israeli officials stated that the large-scale offensive would see the IDF “conquer” Gaza and retain the territory, attack Hamas, prevent the group from taking control of humanitarian aid supplies, and move Palestinians from the Strip’s north to its south.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed again on May 19 that Israel was going to “take control of the entire Strip’s territory.”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
