1 of 6 | Israeli soldiers walk toward a 155mm self-propelled Howitzer on a staging position in southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on October 31, 2023. Photo by Jim Hollander/UPI | License Photo
Israeli infantry engaged in a 10-hour ground and underground battle overnight in the west Jabaliya district of northern Gaza capturing a Hamas stronghold called “Outpost 17,” military authorities said Thursday.
Troops of the Nahal Infantry Brigade completed the takeover of the outpost after fierce fighting in which they killed dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, seized weapons and uncovered tunnel shafts, including one near a kindergarten leading to an extensive tunnel network, Israel Defense Forces said in a post on X. Advertisement
They also recovered “significant” Hamas battle plans.
“During the takeover of the outpost, Nahal soldiers located and collected significant operative materials about the enemy’s operational plans,” said IDF, which did not provide details of any casualties.
Ground forces were supported by Israeli Navy strikes against Hamas anti-tank missile launching posts the IDF said were used to attack its troops in the Gaza Strip.
Other arms of Israel’s military continued to pound Gaza with hundreds of airstrikes, missiles and artillery fire with IDF posting on social media early Thursday that one of its fighter jets had killed Ibrahim Abu-Maghsib, head of Hamas’ Anti-Tank Missile Unit in the Central Camps Brigade. Advertisement
“As part of his position, Maghsib directed and carried out numerous anti-tank missile launches directed at Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” the IDF said.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the occupied Palestinian territory said it estimated that about 50,000 more civilians evacuated from the north of Gaza to the south Wednesday via a safe “corridor” during a five-hour window opened by the Israeli military.
However, it warned that hundreds of thousands of people remaining north of Wadi Gaza were facing a “dire humanitarian situation” and were struggling to secure the minimum of water and food to survive.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said that as of Tuesday 10,305 people in the Palestinian territory have been killed, including 4,237 children, and more than 25,000 injured since Israel launched its military offensive in retaliation for Hamas’ massacre of Israeli civilians Oct. 7.
Palestinian families flee Gaza City amid bombing
Palestinian families flee the Israeli bombing of Gaza City as they walk south on November 7, 2023. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI | License Photo
