Day 75 – IDF says it’s close to end of intensive operations in northern Gaza
Focus of the fighting is shifting to the south
The Israeli army is nearing the end of its intensive operations in the northern Gaza Strip, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari said in a press briefing on Wednesday evening.
Israel Defense Forces has now begun fighting in Daraj Tuffah, near Shejaiya, which will complete the army’s operations in the larger area of the neighborhoods of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Shejaiya itself, which are all considered to be Hamas strongholds.
In Shejaiya, Israeli soldiers located a large Hamas compound which served the highest institutions of Hamas political and military leadership.
Hundreds of terrorists operated in the compound under the cover of civilian buildings, which were all connected with underground tunnels and shafts, making it a strategic infrastructure that was used by senior Hamas leadership to direct operations.
“Haniyeh, Deif and Yahya Sinwar all used these infrastructures; they used them both routinely and in emergencies, and even at the beginning of the war on October 7; they conducted the fighting from there,” Hagari stated.
The army also announced the deaths of three more Israeli soldiers on Thursday morning, bringing the death toll since the start of ground operations in the Gaza Strip to 137.
The fallen soldiers were identified as Sgt. Lavi Ghasi (19) of the Nahal Brigade, and Yaacov Elian (20) and Omri Shwartz (21) – both cadets in the officer school’s Gefen Battalion.
As the intensive phase of fighting in the Gaza Strip begins to wind down, the IDF is changing its tactics to concentrate its raids and searches in the secured areas.
In Jabaliya, soldiers of the 551st Brigade found several weapons belonging to Hamas terrorists while clearing a school that served as a civilian shelter. In Shati, a Hamas cell was discovered by soldiers, who then called in an airstrike to eliminate it.
Maj.-Gen. Yaron Finkelman, commander of the IDF Southern Command, told senior officers in the field that operations would now shift to other areas of the Gaza Strip.
“We are in another important phase of attack in new areas, where we are operating with great force…We will continue and advance here and in other places where haven’t operated on the ground yet, with powerful operations.”
In the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip, Rafah, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried out unusually powerful strikes on Wednesday, according to Palestinian reports.
“We are attacking in Rafah a few days ago, we killed a battalion commander there… I am reporting it here when I know something has happened and there are clear facts; we will report and update all the media together and through this the public, [when] we killed a senior Hamas official. Sometimes it takes a while to know that it happened,” Hagari said.
Some of the most intense fighting is now taking place in the city of Khan Younis, also in southern Gaza. The IDF added another brigade and more engineering tools to drill, locate, and destroy underground infrastructure in the area.
“This is a complex operation, it takes time; it takes time also because of the security of our forces which obliges us when we are going to operate underground, and also because the destruction process takes time and we are determined to do it as long as it takes,” the IDF spokesman added.
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The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
