IDF strikes Hamas members in Gaza humanitarian zone; senior PIJ commander killed
Army says company commander in terror group took part in Oct. 7 attack; Gazans report 23 killed in day of strikes

A pair of Israeli drone strikes hit Hamas operatives inside the Gaza Strip’s designated humanitarian zone, the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday.
The strikes came after a weekend of intense Israeli bombing of terror targets in the Palestinian coastal enclave that, according to unverified reports from officials in the Hamas-controlled territory, killed over 80 people.
A drone strike was carried out against a group of Hamas operatives at a command center in the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, the IDF said. The compound, in the Khan Younis area of the humanitarian zone, was used by the Hamas operatives to plan and carry out attacks against troops in Gaza and against Israel, the military said.
Gaza medics said the compound was a police station and that five people were killed. Last week, Hamas said the IDF killed its chief of police and his deputy in a strike also in the zone.
The IDF said a separate strike in the Deir al-Balah area of the humanitarian zone targeted a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative who had carried out previous attacks from the area.
In both strikes, the IDF said it took steps to mitigate civilian harm. Israel accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian shelters, civilian buildings, and the civilian population as human shields.

The humanitarian zone is located in the al-Mawasi area on the southern Strip’s coast, the western neighborhoods of Khan Younis, and central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.
The size of the zone has changed multiple times, amid evolving IDF operations against the Hamas terror group.
The IDF also reported that a Palestinian Islamic Jihad company commander who participated in the October 7, 2023, onslaught in Israel was killed by troops during recent operations in northern Gaza’s Jabalia.
According to the military, Saad Said Zaki Dahnon, who was also deputy head of the terror group’s rocket division in northern Gaza, was killed in a close-quarters battle with troops of the Givati Brigade.
Dahnon had infiltrated Israel and participated in the October 7 attack, and was also involved in several attacks against troops in the Beit Lahiya area during the war, the IDF said.
A video released by the IDF showed Dahnon and another operative covering themselves in blankets and attempting to approach troops under the cover of darkness and rainy weather. The IDF said Dahnon was killed, while the second operative surrendered to troops.
The second operative was carrying an explosive device, and he was taken to Israel for further interrogation, the IDF added.
Meanwhile, a soldier in the Givati Brigade’s Tzabar battalion was seriously wounded in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday. According to an IDF probe, the soldier was injured when a brick fell on his head during “operational activity.” He was taken to a hospital in Israel for treatment.
Rescuers in the Hamas-controlled Strip said that at least 23 people were killed in strikes on Sunday. The figures, which cannot be verified, do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
An air strike on a house in northern Gaza’s Sheikh Radwan area killed at least 11 people according to the Hamas-run Civil Defense agency’s spokesman Mahmud Bassal. He said the victims included women and children.
“Rescuers are still searching for five people trapped under the rubble of the house,” he said, adding his crew members were using “bare hands” in the effort.
The Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA later reported that a young girl was rescued from the rubble of the building.
Civil defense teams rescued a young girl from the rubble of the Zohd family's home, destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, north of Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/tHZ5EQ63J3
— WAFA News Agency – English (@WAFANewsEnglish) January 5, 2025
Health officials also said an airstrike killed five people in a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, while another airstrike killed four others in Jabalia in the northern edge of the enclave, where Israeli forces have been operating for three months.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said a total of 88 people were killed over the previous 24 hours.
The IDF said over 100 targets were struck in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, killing dozens of Hamas operatives. The strikes were carried out by the Israeli Air Force in a joint effort with the Southern Command, following intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet security agency.
Additionally, the IDF said it struck several rocket-launching sites in Gaza over the weekend.

Renewed fire from Gaza has repeatedly triggered air raid sirens in Israeli communities near the Strip in recent days. Rocket fire had become less frequent as the war dragged on but has intensified since late December as Israel continues a three-month major land and air offensive in the territory’s north.
The recent escalation coincides with ongoing indirect negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal that has eluded the sides since November 2023.
Mediators Qatar, Egypt, and the United States have tried for months to strike a deal to end the war and secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The latest effort comes just days before Donald Trump takes office as US president on January 20.
Kan cited a Palestinian source familiar with the developments as saying the next two days are critical, and that there is a preference to reach a partial deal rather than a full agreement, with Hamas fearing the situation could change once Trump is installed. The Republican, who has backed Israel in the war, has repeatedly warned of serious consequences if the hostages are not released by his inauguration.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, in an interview with RTL radio, said that “we continue to exert the necessary pressure” to reach a deal. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t depend only on us.”
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 45,000 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 18,000 combatants in battle as of November 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.
It is believed that 96 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 38 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.