Two soldiers wounded, Hamas commander killed as troops push forward in southern Gaza
IDF advances in Morag Corridor between Rafah and Khan Younis, find Hamas tunnel under Rafah kindergarten; army issues evacuation orders for several Gaza City neighborhoods
Two soldiers were wounded in southern Gaza on Friday, one of them seriously, the military said, as troops pushed forward and expanded control of a new corridor in the area.
An IDF officer was moderately wounded during an exchange of fire with Palestinian gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip, the military said.
According to the IDF, a cell of terror operatives opened fire on troops in southern Gaza. The soldiers returned fire, killing two of the gunmen. A short while later a drone struck and killed a third member of the cell.
The officer was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Also Friday, a soldier was seriously injured in southern Gaza, the first badly hurt troop since the military resumed its offensive in the Strip last month.
However, the Israel Defense Forces said the soldier with the Golani Brigade’s 12th Battalion was apparently injured in an accident and not by enemy fire. The army said he was hit by an accidental discharge of a bullet, without giving further details.
The soldier was evacuated for medical treatment, and his family were notified, the IDF said.
The IDF also said Friday that a Hamas sniper commander in southern Gaza’s Rafah was killed in a recent strike, as forces continued to operate in the area and advanced in the corridor between the city and nearby Khan Younis.
Ahmad Iyad Muhammad Farhat, the commander of the Hamas terror group’s sniper forces in the terror group’s Tel Sultan Battalion in Rafah, was responsible for advancing and carrying out numerous attacks on Israeli troops in Gaza and against Israel, the IDF said Friday, announcing he had been killed.
The military said that over the previous 24-hour period, Israeli Air Force fighter jets, drones, and helicopters struck some 40 targets across Gaza, including cells of operatives, buildings used by terror groups, weapons, and other infrastructure.
The IDF’s Gaza Division has been operating in Rafah’s Tel Sultan and Shaboura neighborhoods since last month. In the past day, the military said troops killed several operatives and destroyed booby-trapped buildings.
Also in Rafah, the IDF said Friday that troops of the Golani Brigade located a Hamas tunnel built under a kindergarten.
One of the tunnel’s entrances was located in the yard of the daycare, footage released by the military showed. According to the IDF, a school was located 100 meters away.
Footage released by the IDF on April 11, 2025, shows a Hamas tunnel under a daycare in southern Gaza’s Rafah. (Israel Defense Forces)
Troops of the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit scanned the tunnel, which was found to be several dozen meters long and booby-trapped with explosives. The tunnel led to a “key” Hamas underground passageway, the IDF said.
The tunnel was later demolished.
The IDF said the 36th Division advanced in the so-called Morag Corridor, between Rafah and Khan Younis, during which troops killed operatives and destroyed above-ground and underground infrastructure used by Hamas.
In northern Gaza, the 252nd Division located and destroyed additional Hamas infrastructure, and a tank shelled a group of armed operatives, killing them, the IDF said.
New evacuation orders for Gaza City
The IDF also issued an evacuation warning for Palestinians residing in some areas of eastern Gaza City.
In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, published a map of the area to be evacuated, which includes the neighborhoods of Shejaiya, Zeitoun, and Tuffah.
He said that the military would soon operate “with great force” there to “destroy terror infrastructure.”
Civilians were called to head for shelters in western Gaza City.
#عاجل ‼️ انذار عاجل وتحذير خطير الى جميع سكان قطاع غزة المتواجدين في منطقة الشجاعية وأحياء اجديدة، التركمان، توسعة نفوذ، الزيتون الشرقي, النور والتفاح
⭕️جيش الدفاع يعمل بقوة شديدة في مناطقكم لتدمير البنى التحتية الإرهابية.
⭕️من أجل سلامتكم عليكم اخلاء هذه المناطق فوراً… pic.twitter.com/mcO5XThOOV— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) April 11, 2025
Hamas-affiliated Gaza health authorities claimed Friday that a pre-dawn Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis killed 10 members of the same family, seven of whom were children.
The IDF said it was looking into the reports.
Hamas-run civil authorities’ reports of casualties are not independently verified, and they do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
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.
Water pipeline damaged, municipality says
Hundreds of thousands of Gaza City residents have lost their only source of clean water in the past week after supplies from Israel’s water utility were cut amid fighting, municipal authorities in the Hamas-governed territory said.
Many now have to walk, sometimes for miles, to get a small water fill after fighting in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood damaged the pipeline operated by Israel’s state-owned Mekorot.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mekorot’s pipeline had been supplying 70% of Gaza City’s water since the destruction of most of its wells during the war, municipal authorities said.
“The situation is very difficult, and things are getting more complicated, especially when it comes to people’s daily lives and their daily water needs, whether for cleaning, disinfecting, and even cooking and drinking,” said Husni Mhana, the municipality’s spokesperson.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when some 5,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive, and 35 of whom have been confirmed dead — including 58 of those abducted on October 7.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far. The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel assesses it has killed about 20,000 combatants in Gaza as of January, as well as some 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.
Israel’s toll in the Gaza ground offensive and in military operations along the border stands at 410.
The Times of Israel Community.