Israel presses offensive in Khan Yunis

Tel Aviv: Israel pressed its Gaza offensive with overnight military operations in southern and central Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday morning.

In the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, soldiers identified three armed terrorists emerging from a building and directed an air strike, eliminating the terror squad.

Elsewhere in Khan Yunis, Israeli soldiers directed an air strike that killed two terrorists by placing a bomb on the ground. The same soldiers then detected two more terrorists entering a building, and one went to the roof to observe the Israeli forces. An airstrike on the building was called in, killing the terrorists.

A separate Israeli combat team in Khan Yunis attacked terror infrastructure, from which Hamas fired anti-tank missiles.

Khan Yunis is Gaza's second-largest city and is regarded as a personal stronghold of Hamas leader Yahya



Sinwar, whose family lives there.

In the central Gaza area of Al Ma'azi, soldiers conducting surveillance with an aerial drone detected a squad of armed Hamas terrorists emerging from a tunnel shaft. The soldiers called in an air strike, eliminating the squad.

During the activity, the soldiers also located a large number of weapons inside the family home of a terrorist.

In a separate area of Al Ma'azi, forces identified eight terrorists moving towards a school and killed them with sniper fire.

At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas's attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. The number of men, women, children, soldiers and foreigners held captive in Gaza by Hamas is now believed to be 129. Other people remain unaccounted for as Israeli authorities continue to identify bodies and search for human remains.