IDF launches new offensive in Khan Younis; officer seriously hurt in Rafah
Military says it has information on terrorists gathering in southern Gaza city; assault comes day after residents told to evacuate; projectile fired at Ashkelon is intercepted
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces on Friday morning confirmed launching a new ground operation in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, following what it said was “intelligence indicating the presence of terrorists and terror infrastructure in the area.”
A day earlier, the military told Palestinians in the Khan Younis area to evacuate to an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone, ahead of renewed operations there. Palestinian media on Thursday afternoon reported that the IDF had begun new ground operations in Khan Younis.
In early July, the IDF ordered Palestinians in eastern Khan Younis to evacuate, before carrying out an operation there. The military withdrew after eight days.
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, published a list of the zones that needed to be evacuated alongside the latest announcement, which include the Khan Younis suburbs of al-Qarara and Bani Suheila, the Abasan neighborhoods, the town of Khuza’a.
Adraee warned that the military would “forcefully operate” against terror groups in the area.
Some 1.9 million Palestinians of the 2.3 million Gazan population are currently in the humanitarian zone, located in the al-Mawasi area on the Strip’s coast, western neighborhoods of Khan Younis, and central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.
#عاجل ‼️ نداء الى كل السكان الذين لم يخلوا البلدات التالية: السلقا وحاراتها، القرارة وحاراتها، بني سهيلا وحاراتها، عبسان وحاراتها، خربة خزاعة وحاراتها واحياء الشيخ ناصر، مركز المدينة، السطر والمحطة.
⭕️تواصل حماس والمنظمات الإرهابية اطلاق القذائف الصاروخية من مناطقكم نحو دوله… pic.twitter.com/aI4FJoFtzl
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) August 8, 2024
The new offensive was aimed at preventing terror groups in the Gaza Strip from regrouping, the IDF said in a statement.
Israel has increasingly been carrying out pinpoint operations in Gaza in the ongoing war against Hamas, sparked by the terror group’s brutal October 7 onslaught in southern Israel that saw 1,200 people murdered and 251 taken hostage.
The latest operation in Khan Younis was being carried out by the 98th Division, which withdrew from the city in southern Gaza for the second time just last month, following an operation there that lasted just over a week. The division previously operated in Khan Younis for four months earlier this year.
It was the 98th Division’s first major operation with its new commander, Brig. Gen. Guy Levy, who replaced Brig. Gen Dan Goldfus last week. Goldfus will soon be promoted to major general and head the IDF’s Northern Corps and Maneuver Array.
The IDF said the division’s troops were battling Hamas above and below ground while locating weapons and infrastructure.
More than 30 airstrikes were carried out in Khan Younis as ground forces pushed into the city in southern Gaza over the past day, the IDF said on Friday.
The targets included weapon depots and Hamas staging ground, along with several operatives, including snipers and mortar launching squads, according to the IDF.
Meanwhile, early on Friday morning, one rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip at the Ashkelon area.
The IDF said the rocket was successfully intercepted by the Iron Dome, and there were no injuries reported.
Also Friday, the IDF announced that an officer in the Nahal Brigade’s Reconnaissance Unit was hospitalized after being seriously wounded during fighting a day earlier in the southern Gaza Strip,
The officer was hit by anti-tank missile fire in the Rafah area.
Also in Rafah, the IDF said Friday morning that troops with the 162nd Division killed dozens of gunmen by calling in airstrikes, tank shelling, using sniper fire, and in close-quarters combat in the city in southern Gaza over the past day.
On Thursday, the IDF said that it uncovered and destroyed several rocket launchers in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, and adjacent to the Strip’s largest fuel depot.
The IDF said that there was no harm to the fuel depot in the operation to demolish the launchers, which troops of the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion carried out the previous night.
“Any damage to the facility, including rocket fire from these nearby launch pits, could endanger the lives of tens of thousands of Gazan citizens in the surrounding areas. This is a further example of the systematic abuse of civilian and humanitarian infrastructure by the terror organizations in Gaza,” the IDF said.
In Gaza City, the IDF said Thursday that it carried out airstrikes against Hamas command and control centers embedded within two schools.
According to the IDF, Hamas operatives were gathered at the Abdel Fattah Hamoud and al-Zahraa schools, in Gaza City’s Daraj and Tuffah neighborhoods, when the strikes were carried out.
Palestinian media said that at least five were killed at the Abdel Fattah Hamoud School and another seven were killed at the al-Zahraa School.
The school compounds were used as command and control centers for terrorists and commanders in the Hamas terror organization,” from which they planned and carried out attacks against troops in Gaza and against Israel, the military said.
To mitigate harm to civilians, the IDF said it carried out “many steps,” including using aerial surveillance, “precision munitions,” and other intelligence.
Meanwhile, in the Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip, reservists with the 252nd Division killed “many” more gunmen and demolished sites used by terror groups in the past day, the IDF said.
Across the Strip, the IDF said Friday that it struck more than 60 targets in the past day, including buildings used by terror groups and caches of weapons.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 39,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 331.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
