IDF Expands Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots,’ Orders Khan Younis Evacuation Ahead of ‘Unprecedented Attack’
Israeli commandos eliminate senior Hamas-linked commander in Khan Younis raid.
With Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas obstructing the hostage talks underway in Qatari capital, Doha, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is intensifying the operation “Gideon’s Chariots,” which began at midnight Friday.
“Negotiations in Doha over a potential hostage deal with Hamas have yet to produce progress,” the Israeli news website Ynet reported Monday. “Meanwhile, the IDF stepped up military operations in Gaza.”
The Israeli military operation seeks to achieve the twin objectives of freeing the remaining hostages and eliminating Hamas as a terrorist fighting force in Gaza. “As we promised, we have launched a powerful campaign against Hamas, ‘Gideon’s Chariots’,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Sunday. “IDF forces are simply entering with force into the Gaza Strip with a dual goal: defeating Hamas and freeing our hostages.”
The IDF, on Monday, disclosed the details of the ongoing operation, saying the “troops are continuing their operational activity against the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, dismantling terrorist infrastructure sites, and eliminating terrorists, as part of the ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ operation.”
The IDF releases footage from the opening strikes of its new offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, dubbed "Gideon's Chariots."
Hundreds of targets were hit since Friday, including tunnels, weapon depots, anti-tank missile launch posts, terror operatives, and other… pic.twitter.com/B33L8iRTYi
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) May 19, 2025
On Monday morning, the IDF issued an evacuation order for most of Khan Younis, a Hamas stronghold in southern Gaza. The move is aimed at minimizing civilian casualties ahead of a major offensive in the area, media reports indicate.
“The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has ordered residents of Khan Younis to evacuate as it prepares to launch an ‘unprecedented attack’,” the BBC noted. “People were ordered to move towards al-Mawasi in the west of the strip, in one of the largest evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military in recent months.”
The IDF issues an immediate evacuation notice to the residents of Khan Younis area in southern Gaza, ahead of what it calls “an unprecedented attack” on the area. In a statement, the IDF spokesman in Arabic Avichai Adraee said “from this moment, Khan Younis Governorate will be… pic.twitter.com/uxjTWjOcNa
— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) May 19, 2025
Israeli fighter jets continued to hit Hamas terror sites all across Gaza. “Over the past day, the Israeli Air Force struck over 160 terror targets in the Gaza Strip,” the military revealed.
“In northern Gaza, terrorist cells, anti-tank missile launch posts, and military structures were struck. In the central Gaza Strip, underground infrastructure, and a weapons storage facility were struck, and in southern Gaza, terrorist cells, military structures, anti-tank missile launch posts, and booby-trapped structures were struck,” the IDF added.
Israel renews humanitarian aid to Gaza amid widening offensive
With the IDF intensifying military operations, Israel has resumed the aid delivery to Gaza on humanitarian grounds despite Hamas’ track record of hoarding supplies or funneling them to its fighters. “The IDF allowed humanitarian aid to start to enter Gaza on Monday after a two-and-a-half-month pause dating back to early March,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
Report: IDF eliminates senior terror commander in Khan Younis raid
A top Hamas-linked terrorist was reportedly eliminated on Monday morning by IDF special forces in Khan Younis. “A senior Palestinian terror operative was killed in an Israeli operation in the southern Gaza Strip early Monday morning,” The Times of Israel reported.
ISRAEL: IDF troops killed Ahmad Sarhan, a senior PRC commander, in Khan Younis. The IDF says it was part of Operation Gideon’s Chariots, not a hostage rescue. Troops reportedly disguised as civilians; heavy airstrikes hit the area. pic.twitter.com/pvWRQGRIBx
— KolHaolam (@KolHaolam) May 19, 2025
The slain terrorist was identified as Ahmad Sarhan, a ‘senior commander’ of the so-called Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an Iran-sponsored terrorist group which takes direct orders from Hamas.
“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 Times of Israel added.
The Ynet described Sarhan as “a senior commander in the Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees.”
The Popular Resistance Committees acknowledged the killing of senior figure Ahmed Sarhan. He was killed by Israeli special forces during a raid on his home in Khan Yunis overnight. pic.twitter.com/RmmMrgTx7z
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) May 19, 2025
IDF engineers destroy terror tunnel used in deadly attack on Israeli troops
IDF’s Golani Brigade, together with the Yahalom Unit, which specializes in tunnel warfare and demolition, destroyed a Hamas tunnel that was used in a recent terror attack that killed two Israeli soldiers in early May.
“In precision strike deep in Gaza’s Morag Corridor, Golani Brigade and Yahalom Unit troops dismantle a terror tunnel used in the deadly attack on Captain Noam Ravid and Staff Sgt. Yaly Seror,” the Israeli news website Arutz Sheva reported Monday.
The military says it demolished a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip 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.… pic.twitter.com/MliKN2URl8
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) May 19, 2025
The terror tunnel was located near the Morag Corridor, a buffer zone created by the IDF which separates the twin Hamas strongholds of Khan Yunis and Rafah, the military confirmed.
“In recent days, Yahalom Unit soldiers, under the brigade’s command, dismantled the tunnel into which the terrorists fled after they detonated the explosive device that killed Captain Noam Ravid and Staff Sergeant Yaly Seror, and injured two additional soldiers,” the IDF disclosed in a press release Monday.
“After detonating the explosive device, the terrorists escaped through a booby-trapped tunnel shaft toward an underground terror tunnel stretching hundreds of meters. In a precise operation, the soldiers located the tunnel route and dismantled it,” the IDF added.
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Comments
We really do owe Hamas a huge thank you for what they have delivered to the region, the elimination Hesbullah and their own destruction. Simply brilliant 😂😂
Interesting timing. Israel decides to go all in after the last known American hostage is freed.
they do as they are told by the usa
we are lucky that we have them as our military base in that godawful region
Whatever. Getting tired of reading about the latest IDF operation. The whole thing shouldn’t have been allowed to drag on this long and should have ben concluded months ago regardless of the hostage situation. Hopefully, Netanyahu and the IDF get their act together and end it once and for all. But I doubt that will happen.
I agree in principle about things dragging on, but, you have to acknowledge that Biden’s perfidy, subversion and back-stabbing of the IDF and Netanyahu, in order to appease Islamofascists/Muslim supremacists in Michigan, Minnesota and elsewhere in the U.S., are responsible for much of the prolonged nature and higher casualties (on both sides) of this war.
If #47 had been president, I don’t think the 10/7 attacks would have occurred, but, if they had, the Gazan theater of operations would have looked a lot different, and, U.S. forces would have likely fairly been involved, to help rescue American hostages.
Washington Post reported Trump told Netanyahu the relationship with Israel is over if the war doesn’t end immediately, and according to JPost the offensive has been called off.
Hamas very decisively won the war on every meaningful level (if what matters is tactical battles the United States flawlessly won the Vietnam War).
Israel for its own good has to wean itself off American aid and help. In the short term this would be a problem for them.
Their aircraft/helicopters are mostly American and they get certain munitions from the US including I believe the iron dome missiles. The munitions issue they can fix. The aircraft is more problematic. They have a robust aerospace industry, build their own drones, and have built fighter aircraft in the past. Building stealth aircraft though is on a whole other level.
As for other weapons most are homegrown with exception of their navy which is bought from Germany. They could build their own patrol boats I thinks but building subs would be more difficult.
Anyway partnering with a country whose leaders periodically threatened them is problematic and this is likely only going to get worse as more muslims immigrate (and are birthed), and the progressives become more antisemitic.
I 100% agree with the caveat of having very mixed feeling because the United States benefits a lot from the current relationship (all aid money is spent in the United States on American arms and all Israeli innovations and variations immediately get updated into what we use).
“and according to JPost the offensive has been called off.”
Yeah? And where is that article on the JPost web site?
It is right here
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-854569
The population of Gaza needs to be moved elsewhere and the land taken over by Israel
I would rather see Israel annex the West Bank and move all arabs in it who don’t accept Israeli citizenship to gaza,
pls expand this to the blue cities in america
There are obviously still weapons caches, including stores of missiles, in Gaza that have survived thus far. It’s imperative that IDF locate and destroy these locations. Hamas has to disarmed of anything more dangerous than a spork.
What is hamas still fighting for? They already lost everything. They should flee to egypt. Does their ideology not permit them to surrender? Is that what this is about?
Egypt won’t have them. They are fighting simply for the sake of fighting and murdering Jews. It isn’t a rational war, because if they were rational they wouldn’t have kicked the hornet’s nest in the first place.
I’m thinking how nauseating and contemptible it is, that, rather than use the U.S. military to help rescue American hostages held in Gaza — either in coordination with the IDF, or, acting separately — the utterly vile, stupid and evil dotard-crime boss, Biden, instead used the U.S. military to perform an utterly shameful and pointless charade/stunt of giving succor and aid to the Gazan Islamofascist/terrorist “civilians” who comprise and/or support the Hamas thugs who took these hostages.
The wretched Biden gains the distinction of becoming the first U.S. president to order the U.S. military to aid the terrorists who took Americans hostage, rather than attempt to rescue the hostages. Typical, disgraceful Dhimmi-crat behavior.
Update
Trump says Washington Post was lying about tensions or him trying to save Hamas.
That still leaves a highly credible story of Netanyahu chickening out, but it probably doesn’t have anything to do with Trump.
*WHAT* story? You’re telling us about mysterious stories saying this or that but providing no evidence. What does that even mean, “chickening out?”
The claim about the attack being halted was based on claims by reservists to the press.
Hamas can surrender now and they win a pile of rubble.
Or hamas can surrender next month and they win a bigger pile of rubble.
This operation is like a real life Middle East version of the movie “Downfall.” The remaining Hamas leadership are like Nazis still delusionally thinking they can hold out, turn things around, and negotiate a way to keep their regime from collapsing.