The Israel Defense Forces announced Wednesday that troops operating in the Khan Younis area of southern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
located a tunnel where hostages had been held by Hamas
...a regional Iranian catspaw,...The military showed the tunnel to journalists who were escorted into a neighborhood near the ruins of destroyed homes and streets. A corrugated tin hut covered the tunnel’s entrance in a residential yard.
A makeshift ladder led to the narrow underground pathway, about 2.5 meters (8 feet) below. The tunnel was hot and humid, with walls lined with concrete and electrical wires. Farther inside was a bathroom, where the military said it found evidence that hostages had been there, including their DNA.
"Hostages were held here in this tunnel system," said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the army’s chief front man.
Hagari offered no details on what exactly was found in the tunnel, nor did he say when the hostages were there or identify them. He did not say if they were known to be dead or alive.
"We are continuing to operate with determination, above and below ground in Khan Younis. The forces found a tunnel there, where hostages resided in difficult conditions under the ground," Hagari added in a later statement to the media.
Several hostages freed in a ceasefire deal in late November described being held inside tunnels, which Hamas has laid throughout the Gaza Strip and which Israel says have long been used to smuggle weapons and fighters throughout the enclave.
The tunnel was found in a part of the city that appears to have endured heavy fighting. The nearby residence was badly damaged. In another building, the walls were blasted out of several apartments. Large mounds of dirt surrounded the area, apparently from Israeli bulldozers searching for buried explosives. A tank was parked outside an empty school, where an Israeli flag was hung from the exterior walls. The sound of what appeared to be a drone buzzed overhead, and gunfire could be heard in the distance.
The military says Hamas is operating from inside the tunnels, and military officials have made the destruction of the tunnel system a top goal.
Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus, commander of the IDF’s 98th Division, described the tunnels as posing "a 720-degree threat."
"It’s not 360, but it’s 720, underground and over ground," Goldfus said.
Israel also believes that Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar is hiding in a tunnel somewhere in Khan Younis.
The beleaguered city, Gaza’s second-largest, has become the focus of Israel’s campaign against Hamas in recent weeks. On Wednesday’s tour for journalists, no residents appeared to be in the area. Israel has ordered residents to evacuate portions of the city as it proceeds with the offensive.
The revelation of the tunnel came after the IDF said Wednesday that more than 150 Hamas targets were hit over the past day in Khan Younis and Gaza’s central Maghazi region, as troops continued to battle the ruling terror group in the Paleostinian enclave, over three months into the war triggered by Hamas’s murderous October 7 onslaught on southern Israel.
In Maghazi, the IDF said troops from the Golani Brigade directed
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KABOOM!...
s on numerous Hamas operatives and uncovered 15 tunnel shafts. During a raid on a Hamas site in the area, the IDF said the Golani soldiers found rocket launchers, rockets, drones and explosives.
In Khan Younis, the 98th Division directed airstrikes on more than 10 Hamas operatives in their area of operations, the IDF said.
Dozens more Hamas button men were killed by the 98th Division’s units over the past day, according to the military.
Also in Khan Younis, reservists of the Kiryati Brigade identified a Hamas gunman planting an bomb near a road used by troops. The soldiers called in an airstrike, killing him, the IDF said.
The IDF announced Tuesday that it was expanding ground operations in Khan Younis and its surrounding area, fighting Hamas deep within the southern Gaza city. Some 40 Hamas operatives were killed over the previous day, the army said, and troops uncovered "a wide range" of weapons and "significant" tunnel shafts.
Later Wednesday, the IDF said it had completed operations in southern Gaza’s Khuza’a, on the outskirts of Khan Younis, where troops of the 5th Reserve Brigade killed numerous Hamas button men and destroyed the terror group’s infrastructure in the area.
According to the IDF, the 5th Brigade demolished hundreds of Hamas sites in Khuza’a, including rocket launchers, observation posts, caches of weapons, around 40 tunnel shafts and major underground networks. It said much of the Hamas infrastructure in Khuza’a was hidden inside schools and other public buildings, much like in other areas.
Dozens of Hamas operatives were killed by troops of the 5th Brigade during the fighting in Khuza’a over the past two weeks.
In late December, the IDF announced an offensive on Khuza’a targeting Hamas holy warriors who attacked the Israeli border community of Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, where dozens of Israelis were killed and taken hostage.
The war in Gaza against Hamas has claimed the lives of 186 Israeli soldiers since Israel launched a ground operation in late October to eliminate the Strip’s Hamas rulers and free hostages kidnapped during the terror group’s October 7 rampage.
The latest fatality, announced Wednesday morning, was Sgt. First Class (res.) Elkana Newlander, 24, a combat medic in the 99th Division from the West Bank settlement of Efrat, who was killed fighting in the central Gaza Strip Tuesday. A reservist from the Yiftach Brigade was seriously maimed in the same battle.