The Israel Defense Forces ramped up its airstrikes in the northern part of the Gaza Strip Sunday to ensure a safer entry for forces during an expected upcoming ground offensive aimed at toppling the Hamas terror group’s rule over the territory.
Among dozens of Hamas members said killed in overnight airstrikes in Gaza was the deputy commander of Hamas’s rocket array, who is in charge of rocket fire on Israel, the IDF said.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces were still finding Palestinian terrorists in southern Israel, having infiltrated during the Hamas terror group’s murderous invasion on October 7.
On Saturday evening, a member of Hamas’s Nukhba commando forces was captured by Israeli forces while attempting to return to the Gaza Strip. He was described by the military as being “exhausted” after spending more than two weeks hiding in Israel.
The Nukhba unit led the murderous October 7 assault on southern Israel, in which some 1,400 Israelis were killed, most of them civilians slaughtered in their homes or at music festivals near the Gaza border.
The IDF said Sunday morning that it had killed two Nukhba members in an airstrike near the Gaza border fence the previous evening. The military said other Hamas terrorists were also killed in the same strike, but did not elaborate further.
Palestinians survey the rubble following an Israeli airstrike in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on October 22, 2023. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a Sunday press conference that killing Nukhba members was a top priority, alongside senior members of the terror group.
Overnight and on Sunday morning, fighter jets struck dozens of Hamas sites in the Strip, the IDF said.
The targets hit included Hamas assets in multi-story buildings, tunnel shafts, weapons storage sites, command centers, mosques used as war rooms by the terror group, and a weapons production site, according to the IDF.
Strikes in recent days have included targeting high-rise buildings that Hamas was allegedly using as sniper positions and anti-tank guided missile positions.
“We are not stopping our attacks on the Strip,” Hagari said, adding that dozens of Hamas members had been killed in overnight strikes.
The IDF named the slain senior commander as Mohammed Qatmash, and said he was responsible for rocket fire from the central part of the Gaza Strip and was the deputy to the head of the Hamas’s rocket array.
מטוסי קרב של צה”ל חיסלו את מחמד קטמאש, סגנו של ראש מערך הארטילריה הכלל רצועתי של ארגון הטרור חמאס, אחראי על ניהול האש והארטילריה בחטיבת מחנות המרכז.
מתוקף תפקידו, היווה חלק משמעותי בתכנון והפעלת תוכניות האש של הארגון לעבר ישראל בכלל סבבי הלחימה ברצועת עזה>> pic.twitter.com/7YgVszea9b— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 22, 2023
“As part of his role, he was a significant part of the planning and execution of the organization’s [rocket] fire plans against Israel in all rounds of fighting in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said.
“We are increasing the attacks in the Gaza Strip in order to reduce the threats to our forces in preparation for the next phase of the war,” Hagari said, referring to Israel’s expected ground offensive.
“We will go to the next stage under the best conditions for the IDF and in accordance with the decision of the political echelon,” Hagari added.
Hagari said the military has so far notified the families of 212 hostages that their loved ones are being held in the Gaza Strip, adding that the number is not final as the military investigates new information on those missing.
The number did not include Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie — dual Israeli-American nationals kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7 — who were released by Hamas on Friday night. The exact mechanism of the transfer was not immediately clear. Hamas claimed that the release was made “for humanitarian reasons.”
The step was widely viewed in Israel as a public relations gambit, with Hamas interested in somewhat rehabilitating its image since its fighters conducted brutal massacres of Israeli civilians in the terror group’s unprecedented attack on southern communities.
A Hamas spokesperson known as Abu Obeida claimed Saturday the group had offered to release two more hostages the next day under the same procedures, but that Israel refused to accept the offer.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office later said, “We won’t respond to Hamas’s propaganda lies.”
Natalie Raanan, 3rd left, Judith Raanan, right, are seen upon arrival in Israel after being released from Hamas captivity as government hostage envoy Gal Hirsch, center, holds their hands, October 20, 2023 (Courtesy)
War erupted after Hamas unleashed an onslaught of over 2,500 terrorists who invaded Israel from Gaza on October 7, killing and mutilating some 1,400 people, mostly civilians. The terrorists, who broke through the border under cover of a barrage of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities, also abducted at least 212 people of all ages, dragging them back to Gaza as hostages.
Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 260 people were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists, in what US President Joe Biden has highlighted as “the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and says around 1,500 of the group’s fighters were killed in clashes on Israeli territory. Hamas has continued to rain rockets on southern and central Israel from Gaza.
The military has also been responding to attacks from Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, also backed by Iran, and allied Palestinian factions in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for several missile attacks on IDF positions and Israeli towns over the past two weeks, amid concerns in Israel of a northern front opening alongside the war with Hamas in the south. A spokesman for the IDF said Sunday that the escalating attacks risk “dragging Lebanon into a war.”
A spokesperson for the government said more than 200,000 Israelis have been displaced by the conflict. The Defense Ministry is actively taking care of 120,000 of those who have left their homes.
The bombing campaign in Gaza has killed more than 4,600 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and reduced swaths of the densely populated territory to ruins. The Hamas-stated toll cannot be independently verified and is believed to include its own terrorists and gunmen, as well as victims of a blast at a Gaza City hospital on October 17 caused by an Islamic Jihad misfired missile aimed at Israel, which Hamas has blamed on Israel. Israel has produced evidence showing the blast was caused by a Gazan rocket that fell short. The United States, citing its own data, has endorsed the Israeli account.
Israel has urged residents of the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate southward before the expected ground offensive begins.
