IDF says multiple Hamas gunmen killed in fighting throughout Gaza

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

The IDF says it struck a Hamas command center and a launcher used to carry out a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip on southern Israel yesterday morning, within several hours of the attack.

According to the IDF, several hours after the rocket fire on Kissufim and Re’im, the Israeli Air Force struck several Hamas targets in central Gaza. The sites included an apartment used as a command center to carry out the rocket fire, another apartment from which Hamas gunmen opened fire at troops, and a rocket launcher used in the attack, according to the IDF.

Meanwhile, the IDF says it is continuing a large-scale operation in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, during which the 401st Armored Brigade is raiding Hamas sites and killing gunmen, including by calling in airstrikes. The IDF says troops operating in Zeitoun located a weapons depot, a weapons manufacturing plant, rocket launchers, and unspecified “systems” used by Hamas against forces in Gaza.

Amid the operation, the IDF says, the troops also located a tunnel shaft where several Hamas gunmen were hiding. “The troops destroyed the shaft and eliminated the terrorists,” the IDF says.

In central Gaza, the IDF says the Nahal Brigade killed several more Hamas operatives and raided sites used by the terror group, locating weapons. Combat engineers operating with Nahal destroyed dozens of “military” buildings used by Hamas, the IDF adds.

Meanwhile, in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, the IDF says soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade and 7th Armored Brigade captured several Hamas operatives who attempted to flee the area along with evacuating civilians. Troops of the two brigades also killed several Hamas gunmen in Khan Younis, the IDF says.

The Givati Brigade, meanwhile, operated in eastern Khan Younis to clear the area of Hamas infrastructure, including in areas close to Israeli border communities, the IDF says.

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