Offensive marks 4th Jabaliya push since start of war

IDF launches new ground op in north Gaza’s Jabaliya to foil Hamas efforts to regroup

Army says preparing for evacuation of all civilians from north of Strip into expanded humanitarian zones; confirms strikes on operatives at former school, mosque in Deir al-Balah

Troops of the IDF's 162nd Division enter the northern Gaza Strip, October 5, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that troops had encircled Jabaliya amid a new ground operation targeting efforts by Hamas to reestablish itself in northern Gaza.

The military said that the 162nd Division’s 401st and 460th armored brigades encircled the city overnight and troops were operating in the area following intelligence on Hamas operatives and infrastructure, alongside efforts by the terror group to regroup there.

There were reports of loud explosions in the Jabaliya area overnight. The IDF later said it carried out a wave of airstrikes and artillery shelling as troops entered the area.

The military said the strikes targeted dozens of Hamas sites in Jabaliya, including weapon depots, tunnels, cells of operatives, and other infrastructure.

Several dozen terror operatives were killed in airstrikes and tank shelling, according to the IDF.

“The operation will continue as long as necessary, while systematically striking and thoroughly destroying the terror infrastructure in the area,” the IDF said.

IDF strikes in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya, late October 5 and early October 6, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Prior to the operation, the 162nd Division was withdrawn from Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor — the Egypt-Gaza border area — after five months there, and handed over responsibility for the area to the IDF’s Gaza Division, the first time that the regional division has been given responsibility over a large portion of the Strip.

The IDF said there was no reduction in forces in the Egypt-Gaza border area.

The fresh operation marked the fourth push into Jabaliya by the IDF since the start of the war a year ago. The most recent round of fighting there in May was described by the IDF and some officers as “intense” and the “most violent” of the war. The operation comes just days after the military launched a ground offensive in Lebanon against the Hezbollah terror group.

Amid the expanded operation, the IDF announced on Sunday that it was preparing to evacuate civilians from the entire north of Gaza, and would increase the size of the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the southern Strip.

The zone, where the vast majority of the Gazan population currently reside, is where most humanitarian aid is being delivered. There are also field hospitals there.

The IDF published maps for Palestinian civilians “highlighting potential evacuation areas in northern Gaza, including ‘block zones’ that correspond to neighborhoods and regions.”

The military also said it was opening up two evacuation routes for Palestinians — along the Salah a-Din road and the coastal road.

Some 200,000 Palestinians are estimated to remain in northern Gaza, after the IDF called for the entire region to evacuate to the Strip’s south early in the war.

The preparations for the evacuation of the northern part of the coastal enclave came just a day after the IDF called on Palestinian civilians in parts of the central Gaza Strip to move to the humanitarian zones.

Meanwhile, there were heavy Israeli strikes in other parts of Gaza overnight, as the IDF said that warplanes conducted a pinpoint strike on terror operatives who were at a command center in a compound that formerly housed the Ibn Rushd school in Deir al-Balah in the central Strip.

A boy walks amid the rubble of a house hit by an Israeli strike on a Hamas control center in Deir El-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on October 4, 2024. (Eyad Baba/AFP)

Additionally, the IDF said another targeted airstrike hit a second Hamas control center in Deir al-Balah, located in the former site of the Shuhada al-Aqsa mosque, where Gaza medical officials said at least 18 people were killed. The number could not be independently verified and Hamas does not differentiate between civilians and terror operatives.

Hospital records showed that the dead were all men.

The IDF said that command centers were used by Hamas to plan and carry out terror attacks against IDF forces and Israel.

The military said that many steps were taken to mitigate potential harm to civilians in both strikes, including using accurate munitions, aerial visual intelligence and intelligence information.

The latest military action in the Strip comes as the IDF prepares for the likelihood of Hamas efforts to launch attacks on the anniversary of the terror group’s deadly October 7 onslaught in southern Israel that sparked the war.

On Saturday night, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari warned at a televised briefing that Israeli civilians could be targeted.

“We are prepared with increased forces in anticipation for this day,” when there could be “attacks on the home front,” he said.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 41,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting there so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 348.

Agencies contributed to this report.

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