IDF reservist killed, others wounded by explosive device in Gaza City
Troops were operating in Zeitoun neighborhood as part of efforts to expand central Gaza corridor; military issues evacuation warning after rockets fired at Sderot
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
A reserve soldier was killed and several others were wounded Friday morning by an explosive device set off by Hamas operatives in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The slain soldier was named as Sgt. First Class (res.) Evyatar Atuar, 24, of the Jerusalem Brigade’s 6310th Battalion, from Rosh Haayin.
The Jerusalem Brigade in recent days had been carrying out an operation in Gaza City’s southern neighborhood of Zeitoun, to expand the military’s Netzarim Corridor.
The Netzarim Corridor is built around a road south of Gaza City, enabling the IDF to carry out raids in northern and central Gaza while allowing Israel to control access to the north for Palestinians seeking to return after fleeing south. It also enables Israel to coordinate deliveries of humanitarian aid directly to northern Gaza.
According to an initial IDF probe, the reservists reached a building in Zeitoun and began to search it. As four soldiers from the force entered the structure, an explosive device planted on the outer wall of the building exploded.
The blast hurt those standing outside the building, not those inside. At least four other soldiers were seriously wounded, and another three were moderately hurt, according to the IDF.
The military believed that Hamas operatives had set up a camera at the building and then detonated the bomb upon identifying troops in the area.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip now stands at 337.
Also in Zeitoun on Friday, the IDF said it carried out an airstrike against a Hamas command room embedded within a former school.
According to the military, Hamas was using the command room at the Ali Bin Abi Talib School to store “many” weapons and carry out attacks.
To mitigate harm to civilians in the strike, the IDF said it carried out “many steps,” including using precision munitions, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence.
“The Hamas terror organization systematically violates international law, brutally exploiting civilian institutions and the population as a human shield for terror activity,” the military said.
In recent months, dozens of airstrikes have been carried out against Hamas sites embedded within schools and other sites used as shelters for civilians, according to the IDF.
The IDF added that it will “continue to act with strength and determination against the terror organizations that use schools and civilian institutions as shelters.”
Meanwhile, two rockets were launched from northern Gaza at the southern city of Sderot.
According to the IDF, one of the rockets was intercepted by air defenses and the second struck an open area, causing no injuries or damage. Sirens had sounded in Sderot and nearby communities.
Following the rocket fire, the military called on Palestinians in the Atatra area of northern Gaza to evacuate and head to “shelters west of Gaza City.”
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, published a map of the zones that need to be evacuated.
#عاجل ‼️ نداء الي كل المتواجدين في بلوكات: 967, 968, 969, 970, 971, 1738, 1739, 1740, 1746, 1751 في حارات السلاطين، العطاطرة والسيفا، الكرامة والغبن
⭕️على خلفية اطلاق قذائف صاروخية بشكل متواصل من قبل حماس والمنظمات الإرهابية من منطقتكم، سيعمل جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي بقوة ضد تلك… pic.twitter.com/Wl526ZGaGL
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) August 23, 2024
He said the military would “forcefully operate” against Hamas and other terror groups in the area following the rocket fire.
The IDF in recent months has repeatedly issued evacuation orders for areas from which terrorists launched rockets at Israel.
The successive evacuation orders, including 12 orders in August alone, have displaced roughly 90 percent of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million residents since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the top United Nations humanitarian official for the Palestinian enclave said.
Muhannad Hadi charged that the evacuation orders of endangering civilians instead of protecting them. Israel says the orders are aimed at warning civilians ahead of major airstrikes or ground operations, thus protecting the population, which comes at the cost of also giving Hamas operatives advanced warning of Israeli actions.
“They are forcing families to flee again, often under fire and with the few belongings they can carry with them, into an ever-shrinking area” that is crowded and unsafe, according to Hadi.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that due to the recent evacuation orders, the UN’s World Food Programme has lost access to its warehouse in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.
“This was the third and last operational warehouse in Gaza’s middle area,” Dujarric said. “Five community kitchens operated by WFP have also been evacuated, as the agency seeks new locations for them.”
The size of the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” in Gaza — located in the al-Mawasi area on the southern Strip’s coast, western neighborhoods of Khan Younis, and central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah. — has changed multiple times in recent months amid evolving IDF operations against the Hamas terror group.
The zone is currently around 42 square kilometers, or 11% of the total size of the Gaza Strip. According to IDF estimates, some 1.9 million Palestinians of the 2.3 million Gazan population are residing in the zone.
Troops demolish kilometer-long attack tunnel in Rafah
In other updates on Friday, the IDF said that over the past day, more than 30 targets were struck by the Israeli Air Force in the Gaza Strip, as troops battled and killed dozens of gunmen.
The targets hit by IAF aircraft included Hamas compounds, weapon depots, and rocket launching positions in Khan Younis, according to the military.
In Khan Younis and on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah, the IDF said that troops with the 98th Division killed dozens of gunmen and destroyed dozens of sites belonging to terror groups.
Further south, in Rafah, the IDF’s 162nd Division continued to operate in the Tel Sultan neighborhood, where the military said troops killed dozens more terror operatives in the past day.
In central Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor, reservists with the 252nd Division killed a terror operative who was carrying explosives, and struck a rocket launching site, the IDF added.
Also Friday, the IDF said combat engineers demolished a Hamas attack tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah, where a cell of terror operatives emerged in an attempted attack earlier this month.
The tunnel was at least a kilometer long, according to the IDF.
In the attack on August 11, a cell of operatives was identified emerging from a tunnel shaft, and a short while later they were killed in a drone strike.
Since then, the IDF said combat engineers worked to investigate the tunnel. Inside, the troops found explosive devices, electrical infrastructure, and blast doors, the military says.
The tunnel was demolished after being investigated.
Israel launched its war against Hamas in Gaza following the terror group’s onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, during which it killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, 105 of whom are believed to still be held in the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 40,000 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 17,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.
Agencies contributed to this report.
