Terror group says senior operative killed in Israeli special forces op in south Gaza
Palestinian media says undercover troops apprehended wife and children of Popular Resistance Committees commander in Khan Younis; IDF rebuffs report of hostage rescue operation
A senior Palestinian terror operative was killed in an Israeli operation in the southern Gaza Strip early Monday morning, as the Israel Defense Forces denied that the effort was an attempt to rescue Israeli hostages.
The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, a small terrorist organization operating in the Gaza Strip, announced the death of Ahmad Sarhan, following reports that the senior figure was killed in an Israeli commando raid this morning.
The organization said Sarhan was responsible for the group’s “special operations.” It claimed that Israeli commandos killed Sarhan after failing in an attempt to arrest him.
Media outlets in Gaza reported earlier in the morning that Israeli special forces entered Khan Younis and killed Sarhan.
According to the reports, the force entered the heart of the Palestinian city in disguise, including some troops dressed as women. During the operation, Sarhan’s wife and children were apprehended, the reports claimed.
The Popular Resistance Committees is considered the third-largest terror organization operating in the Gaza Strip, after Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In recent years, the group has operated under Hamas’s directives.
الغارات الإسرائيلية صباح هذا اليوم على مدينة خانيونس جنوب قطاع غزة pic.twitter.com/PORzLC14aw
— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) May 19, 2025
Amid the incident at dawn, a wave of heavy airstrikes was reported around the Khan Younis area, including Nasser Hospital.
Videos from the Strip showed large strikes in quick succession in the area, followed by the sounds of helicopter gunships, shelling, small arms fire, and other explosions. There were unconfirmed Palestinian media reports of casualties.
Initially, a report from Saudi news channel al-Arabiya, picked up by Hebrew-language media, claimed that the Israeli forces entered the area as part of an attempted hostage rescue operation.
In response, the IDF issued a vague statement hinting that no such operation took place.
“The IDF is in the midst of Operation Gideon’s Chariots and is operating in all areas of the Gaza Strip,” the military said, referring to its intensified offensive launched late last week.
“Following the reports, there is no change to the situational assessment,” the statement added.
The special forces exited the city without taking on any casualties, according to Hebrew-language media.
Palestinian media published images purportedly showing a wagon left behind by the Israeli forces.
The photos showed what appeared to be a wagon of the kind usually pulled by a mule or motorcycle, and often used by displaced Gazans to move their belongings. Inside, however, was a secret hollow section where Israeli troops or equipment may have been hidden, or which possibly could be used to hold suspects.
عاجل| مصادر محلية: قوة خاصة اسرائيلية تسللت بلباس مدني إلى موقع وسط خانيونس واغتالت شخصا واعتقلت زوجته وأطفاله..
صورة لحقيبة مموهة تركتها القوات الخاصة كانت تحتوي على أسلحة مموهة بأغراض نزوح pic.twitter.com/RpYbvgimxs
— فلسطين بوست (@PalpostN) May 19, 2025
IDF declares all of Khan Younis a combat zone
The IDF announced Monday that all Palestinians living in and around the large southern Gaza city of Khan Younis must leave their homes as it prepares to launch an “unprecedented attack” on the area.
The evacuation order, covering all of Khan Younis as well as the suburbs of Bani Suheila and Abasan, marks the first major evacuation order since the IDF launched an expanded offensive in the Strip, with Israeli leaders warning they intend to conquer the whole territory to smash Hamas.
#عاجل ‼️ الى سكان محافظة خان يونس، بني سهيلا وعبسان
⭕️جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي سوف يشن هجوماً غير مسبوق لتدمير قدرات المنظمات الإرهابية في هذه المنطقة
⭕️عليكم الأخلاء فوراً غرباً الى منطقة المواصي⭕️
⭕️من هذه اللحظة، ستعتبر محافظة خانيونس منطقة قتال خطيرة
⭕️المنظمات الإرهابية جلبت… pic.twitter.com/1yqOLDVTKK— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) May 19, 2025
Media outlets in Gaza published footage showing large numbers of residents leaving the Khan Younis area on foot.
نزوح بعض الأهالي من شارع الجلاء في خانيونس
مع نزوح مستمر حتى بدون خريطة إخلائات في مخيم جباليا يحدث على مدار الساعة pic.twitter.com/m45OJlv70Y— م.ي.بن رجب (@YahyaBenrjab1) May 19, 2025
According to Al Arabiya, thousands of residents have already begun evacuating.
In recent weeks, there has been relatively low compliance with IDF evacuation orders in Gaza, according to both residents’ testimonies and UNRWA data on the number of evacuees.
#صور | نزوح فلسطينيين إلى وسط وغرب مدينة خانيونس بعد أن أجبرهم جيش الاحتلال على إخلاء مناطق بني سهيلا وعبسان بخانيونس جنوبي قطاع غزة ظهر اليوم pic.twitter.com/ryr4lWDohz
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) May 19, 2025
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes struck over 160 targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day, the military said, after Palestinian media outlets reported that dozens of aerial bombardments were conducted across the territory overnight.
According to the IDF, the targets included cells of operatives, anti-tank missile launch sites, tunnels, a weapons depot, buildings used by terror groups, booby-trapped structures, and a command center.
Strikes were reported in and near Khan Younis, in Gaza City in the north, and in the area of Deir al-Balah in the central Strip.
Hamas-run authorities in Gaza said Israeli attacks on Monday have killed at least 52 people.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said 136 bodies were brought to Gaza hospitals over the past 24 hours, along with 364 wounded.
In one of the latest operations, the military said it demolished a tunnel in Rafah used by Hamas operatives in an attack that killed two soldiers earlier this month.
In the attack on May 3, Hamas operatives set off a bomb in a tunnel shaft in Rafah, killing Cpt. Noam Ravid and and Staff Sgt. Yaly Seror, who served in the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit.
After setting off the explosion, the operatives fled through the tunnel, which was some 200 meters long, the army said. Troops mapped out the tunnel in recent days and demolished it.
The IDF said that during the demolition of the tunnel, troops killed another cell of Hamas operatives, which was hiding inside the underground passage.
<h6>Video released by the IDF on May 19, 2025, showing the demolition of a Hamas tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip. (Israel Defense Forces)</h6>
IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press statement from the Gaza border on Sunday evening that five divisions were now operating inside the Strip.
“We are entering a new stage in the fighting. During the operation, we will increase and expand our operational control in Gaza while bisecting the Strip and moving the population for its safety in all the areas where we operate,” he said. “Unlike before, we are now focusing on the offensive effort in the Gaza Strip…until the defeat [of Hamas] in the areas where we operate.”
Israeli officials had warned that the major offensive would be launched if no hostage deal was reached with Hamas by the end of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region on Friday.
Hostage talks were still ongoing, and the military said it was only carrying out the preliminary stages of the offensive. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said, “The IDF will allow flexibility for the political echelon to advance any hostage deal.”
“A hostage deal — this is not a halt; it is an achievement,” Zamir stressed during a visit to Gaza on Sunday. “We are working toward it.”
According to Israeli officials, the offensive would see the IDF “conquer” Gaza, raze the vast majority of buildings and retain the territory for the foreseeable future; attack Hamas and prevent it from taking control of humanitarian aid supplies; and move Palestinians from Gaza’s north to its south.
Hundreds of Gazans have been killed in Israeli strikes since the initial stages of the operation were launched on Friday, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the war so far.
The tolls cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January, and another 1,600 terrorists inside the country during the October 7 onslaught, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
The Times of Israel Community.