(JNS) Israeli Air Force fighter jets killed two terrorists in northern Gaza on Tuesday who participated in the October 7 attack on Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak in the north-western Negev.
Five security team members and one Israel Defense Forces soldier were killed and eight hostages were taken at Nir Yitzhak during the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were murdered, thousands more wounded and 253 kidnapped. One hundred thirty-four hostages remain in the Gaza Strip.
Two Hamas platoon commanders and a squad commander in the terrorist group’s Nukhba special forces unit were also killed in Tuesday’s IAF strike.
And in Beit Hanun in the northeastern Gaza Strip, soldiers on the ground directed a fighter jet to target two terrorists who fled to a “military” compound.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to press the offensive in the former Hamas stronghold of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, killing 20 terrorists over the past day in the central part of the city, including 15 during an IDF sniper ambush. Furthermore, a weapons storage facility was destroyed.
Moreover, IDF soldiers killed several terrorists and confiscated a large quantity of weapons in the area of the Qatari-funded Hamad City residential complex in northwestern Khan Yunis, as part of the “Crown of the West” operation to target terrorists entrenched there.
The Hamad City operation began with a massive wave of strikes overnight Saturday, with the Israeli Air Force and IDF Artillery Corps hitting 50 targets within six minutes. Ground forces encircled the luxury complex and created a humanitarian corridor to evacuate thousands of residents, capturing dozens of terror suspects in recent days attempting to hide among the civilian population.
The IDF announced on Tuesday that its Counter-Terror Unit (known by its Hebrew acronym, LOTAR), is conducting a special operation against Hamas in the heart of Khan Yunis.
During the series of raids, the unit uncovered dozens of rocket warheads, grenades, mortars and other weapons and military equipment, hidden near a school used as a shelter for displaced Gazan civilians, the IDF said.
During LOTAR Unit raids of Hamas hideouts and military strongholds in residential areas, and acting on intelligence information, “the forces searched several Hamas infrastructures and located a weapons storage facility” near the school, it added.
The hidden weapons included cartridges and ammunition, while some of the munitions were concealed in sacks and pits.
