Israeli fighter jets struck a Hamas base early morning Sunday after the terrorist group fired several rockets aimed at towns in southern Israel.
The terrorist base was embedded in a Gaza hospital, a preferred location for Hamas to place its jihadist fighters and to hoard weapons. The targeted terrorists were plotting to execute attacks on Israeli troops and civilians, the military disclosed. The Israeli “[f]orces launch retaliatory strikes on Hamas positions in Gaza, including a hospital used for military operations, after terror group launched rockets at Israel during holiday,” the Israeli news website YNET reported Sunday.
Hamas fired at least five rockets from Gaz as Jews across Israel observe the week-long Passover festivities. Most rockets failed to reach their targets, with IDF air defense systems intercepting one projectile over the southern Israeli kibbutz of Re’im, news reports indicate. “The military said rocket sirens were sounded in open areas, no injuries were reported and the intercepted rocket was the fourth launched into Israel from Gaza that day,” the news outlet added.
Revealing the details of the retaliatory strike, the Israeli military said Sunday morning:
A short while ago, the IDF and ISA [Shin Bet security agency] struck a Hamas command and control center in the area of Deir al Balah. At the time of the strike, numerous Hamas terrorists were operating from within the compound, from where they planned to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops.
The terrorists were inside the compound when the strike took place. While the Hamas terrorists embedded themselves in the hospital to maximize civilian casualties, the Israeli armed forces undertook painstaking measures to keep Gazans out of harm’s way, the IDF informed.
“The targeted terrorists had planned to carry out additional terrorist attacks,” the IDF statement added. “Prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance.”
The IDF, on Sunday afternoon, issued news evacuation orders for southern Gaza after the Hamas rocket fire which came from the Khan Younis area. “Israel issues immediate evacuation warning for several Gaza neighborhoods after rocket attack on Reim,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported Sunday afternoon.
The order comes after Israeli ground troops, on Saturday, completed the encirclement of the Hamas stronghold of Rafah, creating the Morag Corridor which cuts off the terror bastion from Khan Younis.
Apart from the airstrike on the Hamas command center, the IDF ground troops were sweeping across Rafah, eliminating jihadists and destroying terrorist infrastructure, the Jerusalem Post reported:
The 188th Special Operations Command killed dozens of terrorists during ongoing ground operations in southern Gaza, the IDF announced on Sunday.The 188th Brigade Combat Team is continuing targeted activity in new areas of Rafah with the aim of dismantling terrorist infrastructure and establishing operational control.As part of the operation, the IDF located and destroyed multiple tunnel shafts, observation posts, booby-trapped buildings, and additional terrorist infrastructure that posed a direct threat to Israeli troops.
Social media posts suggest that the IDF has succeeded in eliminating the Hamas ‘police’ commander, Mohammed Darbashi, who played a key role in suppressing opposition to the Gaza-based terror regime. Hamas also uses its ‘police’ force to steal incoming food and humanitarian supplies.
The Israeli Air Force also struck a terrorist cell planting a roadside bomb:
The IDF resumed the military operation in Gaza after Hamas in mid-March turned down a ceasefire proposal by the Trump administration, refusing to negotiate the release of 59 hostages, including the remains of 35 Israeli captives murdered by the terrorists since October 7, 2023.
Earlier this week the IDF extended the security buffer zones in central and southern Gaza, taking direct control of some 30 percent of the Hamas-infested territory.
Israeli military destroyed an over 7 mile-long Hamas tunnel in Gaza. “IDF troops dismantled a 1.2 kilometer-long underground route in the northern Gaza,” the military disclosed Sunday evening.
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