IDF says Hamas commandos slain; UN pans ‘systematic’ refusal of access to north Gaza

As forces continue fighting in Khan Younis in Strip’s south and Maghazi in center, White House notes dangers of starvation amid insufficient aid to civilians

IDF troops operate in Gaza in a handout image cleared for publication on January 12, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
IDF troops operate in Gaza in a handout image cleared for publication on January 12, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF said Friday it had killed dozens of Hamas gunmen during operations in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis and Maghazi in the Strip’s center in the past day, as fighting in the territory continued and as Israel defended its actions at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

At the same time, the United Nations humanitarian office said Israeli authorities were systematically denying it access to northern Gaza to deliver aid and that this had significantly hindered the humanitarian operation there.

“The operations in the north have become increasingly more complicated,” said Andrea De Domenico, head of office for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “We have systematic refusal from the Israeli side of our effort to get there, to access the north.”

Israeli authorities and COGAT — an Israeli Defence Ministry agency tasked with coordinating aid deliveries into Palestinian territories — did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Israel has previously denied blocking the entry of aid.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Thursday that Gazans are facing starvation and more humanitarian aid must get in.

“We recognize that there are real food security issues in Gaza,” he said. “We understand there’s a lot of hunger and starvation in Gaza.”

Palestinian Red Crescent personnel check a destroyed ambulance in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on January 11, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Kirby said not enough aid trucks were getting into Gaza.

Nukhba commanders killed

In Maghazi, the IDF said the 36th Division killed some 20 Hamas operatives, including a commander in the terror group’s elite Nukhba force.

In Khan Younis, the 98th Division directed an airstrike on a building used by Hamas, killing seven operatives, the IDF said. According to the IDF, among those killed in the strike was another Nukhba commander, who participated in the October 7 onslaught.

Also in Khan Younis, the IDF said troops of the Commando Brigade spotted three Hamas gunmen coming out of the home of an operative and approaching the forces. The commandos opened fire, killing the three.

The IDF said Thursday that Hamas used more than 6,000 tons of concrete and 1,800 tons of steel for the hundreds of kilometers of tunnels it built beneath the Gaza Strip, citing new intelligence. It also revealed new video footage of a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis where it believes hostages were previously held by the terror group.

The army said information recovered by troops in Gaza, along with the hundreds of underground passages that have been investigated so far, indicated that Hamas invested tens of millions of dollars in its tunnels project.

“The Hamas terror organization chose to invest these precious resources in building a terror infrastructure used to harm Israeli citizens and IDF forces, while cynically exploiting the civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said.

Amid the ground operation in Gaza, now nearing its 100th day, the IDF has been operating to demolish Hamas’s main tunnel networks.

War erupted between Israel and Hamas after the terror group’s October 7 massacres, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing over 240 hostages of all ages — mostly civilians.

Wounded Palestinians arrive at the al-Aqsa Hospital after an Israeli strike on a house in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on January 10, 2024. (AFP)

Vowing to destroy the terror group, Israel launched a wide-scale military campaign in Gaza, which the Hamas-run health ministry has said killed over 23,000 people since. These figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 8,500 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

Several hostages freed in a ceasefire deal in late November described being held inside tunnels, which Hamas has laid throughout the Gaza Strip and which Israel says have long been used to smuggle weapons and fighters throughout the enclave.

It is believed that 132 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during the late November truce. Four hostages were released prior to that, and one was rescued by troops. The bodies of eight hostages have also been recovered and three hostages were mistakenly killed by the military. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the deaths of 25 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.

Israel also believes that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is hiding in a tunnel somewhere in Khan Younis.

IDF troops operate in Gaza in a handout image cleared for publication on January 12, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

On Wednesday, the military took journalists from international outlets to see the tunnel, and said that so far in the Khan Younis area, troops have uncovered more than 300 tunnel shafts leading to major Hamas tunnels in the area. More than 100 tunnels have so far been destroyed or rendered inoperable.

The city, Gaza’s second-largest, has become the focus of Israel’s campaign against Hamas in recent weeks. On Wednesday’s tour for journalists, no residents appeared to be in the area. Israel has ordered residents to evacuate portions of the city as it proceeds with the offensive.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday said there are “nearly insurmountable challenges” to aid delivery in Gaza amid bombardment, movement restrictions, fuel shortages and interrupted communications.

The WHO says only a few Gaza hospitals are even partly functioning.

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