Troops wrap up push to re-clear Hamas from Gaza City neighborhood

The Israeli military says it has wrapped up a week-and-a-half-long pinpoint raid in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood aimed at re-clearing the area of Hamas infrastructure and operatives.

Early this morning, combat engineers completed the demolition of a kilometer-and-a-half-long Hamas tunnel in the area, the IDF says, before pulling back to the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza.

The tunnel, 23 meters (75 feet) deep, passed close to the corridor — where the IDF has maintained a prolonged presence — according to the military.

The raid in Sabra was led by the Yiftah Reserve Infantry Brigade.

During the raid, the IDF says reservists located two major rocket depots, as well as other weapons, including an Igla (SA-18) anti-aircraft missile launcher, considered to be a relatively rare model in the Gaza Strip.

The troops came under RPG fire amid the raid, and responded by killing the operatives with tank shelling and by directing airstrikes, the military says.

Dozens of gunmen were killed and some 70 sites belonging to terror groups were destroyed by the brigade, combat engineers, and in airstrikes, the IDF adds.