During the weekend, the Israeli forces continued mopping up operations in the northern Gaza Strip while deepening operations in the Strip’s central and southern parts.
Residents of the al-Bureij area in the central Gaza Strip were called to move south by the IDF, as the Israeli army is expected to intensify its operations in the southern areas after largely securing the fighting hotspots in Gaza City.
The IDF has declared it has almost totally secured the northern Gaza Strip but is continuing less intensive search operations to find remaining terror cells and their infrastructures.
In the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF announced another four-hour humanitarian pause in the western part of Rafah to allow for humanitarian aid supplies and warned residents of Khan Younis to avoid certain areas because of intensive fighting there.
Over the past week, over 200 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives were arrested or surrendered, the IDF and the Shin Bet announced. Over 700 terrorists have been arrested for questioning since the start of the ground operation.
On Saturday, a trap set by Israeli forces resulted in the elimination of dozens of Hamas terrorists in one airstrike.
During operations of the 11th Reserve Commando Brigade battlegroup in Gaza City, soldiers fired at several terrorists to cause them to escape to a building known to be in use as a command post.
When the ground troops identified the terrorists had fled into the building, they called in a fighter jet which destroyed the building, killing dozens of terrorists in one blow.
IDF forces operating in Gaza (Photo: IDF)
In addition, forces of the 11th Brigade battlegroup eliminated another terror cell by directing an airstrike at it and identified numerous Hamas military sites that were subsequently destroyed.
The IDF announced that Hassan Atrash, who was an important financier and smuggler for Hamas, was eliminated in a targeted airstrike in Rafah on Friday.
Atrash dealt with weapons trade, production, and supply for the military wing of Hamas and was also involved in weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
On Saturday, Hamas terrorists resumed firing rockets at Israeli communities near the Gaza border, after almost 48 hours of silence since Thursday noon.
On Saturday evening, the IDF announced the deaths of 5 additional Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, raising the overall death toll to 144.
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