Three soldiers killed in north Gaza; IDF says 900 terror operatives dead in Jabalia op
Military Police probing death of 3rd soldier; troops destroy Hamas underground weapons plant in Gaza City, as IDF denies claims by WHO, Hamas that it hit vaccination center
Three Israeli soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, the military announced.
Two of the slain troops were named as Staff Sgt. Itay Parizat, 20, from Petah Tikva, and Staff Sgt. Yair Hananya, 22, from Mitzpe Netofa.
Both served in the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion.
Another soldier was seriously wounded in the same incident, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The military said it was still probing the deadly incident.
Their deaths brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 370.
Separately, on Sunday morning, the IDF announced that another soldier was killed by a grenade explosion early the previous morning in northern Gaza, without publicizing his identity.
He was named by local authorities as Shneur Zalman Cohen, 20, from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar.
The Military Police launched an investigation into the circumstances of the deadly incident, which was apparently not directly related to the fighting.
שניאור כהן, לוחם גבעתי בן 20 מיצהר, נהרג אתמול בעזה.
בן למשפחה חב״דית ותיקה ביישוב, למד בישיבת חב״ד במצפה יצהר.
גם אביו עושה מילואים בהגמ״ר.
שניאור הותיר אחריו הורים ו8 אחים ואחיות pic.twitter.com/HucHZ2DStX— Carmel Dangor כרמל דנגור (@carmeldangor) November 2, 2024
Meanwhile, the IDF announced Saturday that, according to the latest assessments, Israeli troops had killed some 900 terror operatives during an ongoing operation in northern Gaza’s Jabalia, which began last month.
Another 700 Palestinians have been detained, among whom at least 300 have so far been confirmed to be members of terror groups, according to the IDF.
In Gaza City, the IDF located and demolished a large underground weapons manufacturing plant operated by Hamas.
The army said that troops with the 252nd Division located the tunnel network, where Hamas had previously manufactured weapons.
The site was located “in the heart of a civilian population,” near Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, the IDF said.
In the tunnel, the IDF said troops found lathes and hundreds of components used to build rockets, mortars, grenades, and diving equipment, which would have been used by Hamas terrorists to infiltrate into Israel via the sea.
Also in the tunnel, the IDF said it found several rooms where Hamas operatives could reside for long periods. The rooms included kitchens, bedrooms and offices.
Combat engineers mapped out the tunnel system before demolishing it.
The IDF said that by demolishing the tunnel and seizing the equipment, it “foiled another attempt by the Hamas terror organization to rearm.”
Throughout the war, Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stressed that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
Terrorist from Oct. 7 attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz killed
On Sunday the IDF announced that a Hamas Nukhba Force terrorist who participated in the October 7 onslaught was killed in a drone strike in the southern Gaza Strip last week.
According to the military, Rafaat Ibrahim Mahmoud Aqdih was among the Nukhba terrorists who raided Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, killing and abducting civilians.
During the war, the IDF said he served as an assistant to the head of the Nukhba Force in Khan Younis.
צה״ל ממשיך לפגוע במחבלי חיזבאללה וחמאס: במרחב אל-חיאם בלבנון חוסלו שני מחבלים מרכזיים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה; ברצועת עזה חוסל מחבל נח׳בה שפשט לקיבוץ ניר עוז ב-7 באוקטובר
כוחות אוגדה 91 יחד עם כלי-טיס של חיל-האוויר תקפו וחיסלו את המחבל פארוק אמין אלעשי, מפקד מתחם אל-חיאם של… pic.twitter.com/KrCsbqqJWH
— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) November 3, 2024
Also on Saturday, the IDF denied claims made by the World Health Organization and Hamas that it had carried out a strike against a vaccination center in Gaza City earlier in the day, wounding six.
“We have received an extremely concerning report that the Sheikh Radwan primary health care center in northern Gaza was struck today while parents were bringing their children to the life-saving polio vaccination in an area where a humanitarian pause was agreed to allow vaccination to proceed,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.
“Six people, including four children, were injured,” he added.
The WHO chief did not specify who carried out the strike, but a source in the Hamas-run civil defense agency tells AFP that it allegedly was “an Israeli quadcopter that fired two missiles which hit the wall of Sheikh Radwan clinic.”
In response to a query on the matter, the IDF said it was aware of claims that civilians were hurt at the vaccination center, but contrary to the reports, it said that no Israeli strike had been carried out in the area at that time.
“Today, a vaccination operation began, in coordination with the IDF via COGAT, and in cooperation with the international community, within which the population is allowed to safely reach the medical centers where the vaccinations will be given to the population,” the military said.
“We are aware of a claim about the harm to Palestinian civilians at the Sheikh Radwan vaccination center in the northern Gaza Strip. Contrary to what was claimed, a preliminary investigation reveals that there was no strike by IDF forces in the area at the time in question,” the IDF said.
The IDF added that it “emphasizes that the Hamas terror organization deliberately fires from civilian areas, systematically violates international law, and cynically exploits the civilian population as a shield for terror acts against the State of Israel.”
The war erupted when Hamas-led terrorists attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, 43,314 Palestinians have been killed and 102,019 injured in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
