The Israeli army said on Sunday its air force carried out overnight strikes targeting tunnels, command centers, munitions warehouses of Hamas in Gaza.
“Overnight, Israeli Air Force fighter jets and helicopters struck terror targets in the Gaza Strip, including terror tunnel shafts, command centers and weapons storage facilities. Furthermore, with the direction of [Israeli army] ground troops, an [army] UAV targeted and eliminated five Hamas terrorists,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
It added: “Over the last day, [Israeli army] naval troops struck Hamas terror targets and assisted [army] ground troops during their operational activities. Among these targets were terrorist infrastructure, vessels belonging to Hamas’ naval forces, and weapons.
This comes after the Israeli army said on Saturday it had killed a Hamas battalion commander responsible for several deadly attacks against both civilians and soldiers amid its continued strikes in the Gaza Strip after the end of the humanitarian pause.
Israeli army spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said: “[Israeli army is] operating in the Gaza Strip and are progressing in the stages of combat. Today, the [Israeli army] and the ISA killed the terrorist Wisam Farahat. Wisam Farahat was the commander of the Sajaiya battalion of the terrorist organization Hamas.”
He added: “We will continue to pursue each of the terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre, and eliminate them. The operation in the Northern Gaza Strip generated military pressure and enabled the realization of the framework within which some of the hostages returned. Now, we are determined to continue to fight, dismantle Hamas, and bring all the hostages home.”
Additionally, Hagari stated that over the past day, the Israeli army “struck over 400 Hamas targets throughout the Gaza Strip, in which we eliminated Hamas commanders, Hamas fighters, Hamas terrorists, Hamas infrastructure, and we will continue to do so and dismantle Hamas.”
Israel had said the Hamas attacks on October 7 killed 1,400 people, most of them civilians, and the militia, originally, took more than 240 hostages in one of the deadliest attacks in Israel’s history. Immediately afterwards, Israel commenced air campaigns on Gaza and launched the recent ground offensive which has resulted in the deaths of more than 16,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Separately, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Saturday that scores of innocent civilians, including children and women, were killed and injured “in a series of indiscriminate Israeli aerial and artillery strikes targeting the neighborhoods of Shujaeya, Al-Tuffah, Al-Zaytoun, Al-Sabra, Al-Sheikh Radwan, and Tal Al-Hawa in Gaza City.”
Meanwhile, Hamas’ armed wing al-Qassam Brigades announced on Sunday that in the village of Juhr al-Dik east of Gaza City their members planted anti-personnel mines around the position of Israeli soldiers then detonated the mines. One of the members of the Brigades killed off the remaining Israeli soldiers before the Brigades members withdrew after “killing a large number of occupation soldiers,” according to the al-Qassam Brigades’ statement.
Source: Al Arabiya