From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
IDF targeting Hamas in central Gaza, battling terror group’s al-Bureij battalion
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The IDF is further expanding its operations in the central Gaza Strip, with the 36th Division moving away from the Gaza City area and striking Hamas’s al-Bureij battalion.
“The battalions of the central camps are currently facing the strength of the IDF. They will cease to function as other battalions have ceased to function,” says the commander of the 36th Division, Brig. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa.
The al-Bureij battalion consists of around 1,000 fighters and is just one of four Hamas battalions in the terror group’s central camps brigade.
The four Hamas battalions in central Gaza — al-Bureij, Deir al-Balah, Maghazi and Nuseirat — have all sustained some damage in Israeli strikes, but are believed to be largely functioning. The commander of the central camps brigade, Ayman Nofel, was killed in an Israeli strike last month.
During the first hours of ground operations in al-Bureij, the IDF says troops of the Bislamach Brigade located a tunnel shaft leading to a large underground Hamas tunnel network, as well as a training ground.
The operations in central Gaza come as the IDF is focusing most of its efforts on the southern part of the Strip, while conducting clear-up operations of Hamas infrastructure in the north.
The 36th Division had fought in the Gaza City neighborhoods of Zeitoun, Shejaiya, Rimal and Shati.
“The fighting in Shejaiya was difficult and complex, and we managed to achieve significant achievements during it. Shejaiya will no longer be a terror center for Hamas,” Bar Kalifa says.
The IDF has begun to demolish buildings in areas it has captured along the Gaza border, including Shejaiya, to establish a one-kilometer buffer zone, so that residents of Israeli border towns can return to live in their communities in safety.
