IDF wraps up 3-week-long op. in southern Gaza; 250 gunmen killed, 6 km of tunnels destroyed, 6 bodies of hostages recovered

The IDF has wrapped up a three-week-long operation in the southern Gaza Strip, during which the military says it demolished six kilometers worth of tunnels, killed over 250 gunmen, and recovered the bodies of six hostages.

The raid, in Khan Younis and on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah, was launched by the 98th Division in early August. The division has now been withdrawn from Gaza as it prepares for future operations.

According to the IDF, amid the operation combat engineers demolished six separate tunnels, totalling some six kilometers of underground passages.

Inside some of the tunnels, troops killed gunmen, as well as located areas where terror operatives had resided, and found weapons, the military says.

Dozens more Hamas infrastructures above ground were also demolished amid the operation, the IDF says.

The military says troops also located weapons, rocket launchers, and intelligence materials at a “central” Hamas outpost in the Deir al-Balah area.

In the Hamad Town residential complex of Khan Younis, the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages from a Hamas tunnel last week.

The hostages were Alex Dancyg, 75, Yagev Buchshtav, 35, Chaim Peri, 79, Yoram Metzger, 80, Nadav Popplewell, 51, and Avraham Munder, 78.