IDF launches ground op in Khan Younis outskirts named for kibbutz attacked on Oct. 7

The IDF has launched ground operations against Hamas in southern Gaza’s Khuza’a, on the outskirts of Khan Younis.

In a missive to troops, the commander of the Gaza Division, Brig. Gen. Avi Rosenfeld, dubs the operation “Oz and Nir” (Might and Furrow), after the community of Nir Oz that was attacked by Hamas on October 7.

“On the cursed Sabbath, October 7th, the horrible terrorists came from Khirbat Ikhzaa (Khuza’a), who committed the most horrible crimes imaginable,” the missive reads.

“The terrorist attack by the Gaza terrorists from Khirbat Ikhzaa was aimed at Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community of people of work and peace,” Rosenfeld says.

Hamas terrorists killed and kidnapped dozens in Nir Oz.

“The rage and shock at what happened to the people of Nir Oz and the frustration that we failed to protect them will always accompany us,” the commander says.

“We are committed to pursuing the terrorists who were there and those who aided them, to the last of them, and bring home from captivity in Gaza the people of Nir Oz, along with all the hostages and the missing,” he says.

“We will work with all our might to eliminate the terrorists hiding there above and below the ground, and to dismantle the infrastructures of terrorism and evil,” Rosenfeld adds.