Sunday, December 3, 2023

IDF carries out ‘extensive’ airstrikes in Khan Younis area amid heavy Gaza fighting

The Israel Defense Forces carried out “extensive” strikes against the Hamas terror group in south Gaza Friday overnight and into Saturday, while calling on Palestinians to evacuate from areas near the Israeli border, indicating ground operations in the southern part of the Strip were due to start soon.

In a statement Saturday morning, the IDF said it carried out airstrikes against over 400 targets across the Strip in the past day since fighting resumed. Ground, air and naval forces were all involved in the operations.

The military said fighter jets attacked over 50 targets in the Khan Younis area in “extensive” strikes in the southern part of the enclave.

Meeting reservists near the Gaza border, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the army was striking areas it had not hit before. Gallant said the commanders of Hamas’s battalions in northern Gaza “already know very well what the IDF can do,” while “Hamas battalion commanders in Khan Younis and Rafah [in southern Gaza] also understand very well what happened to the others.”

Troops operating in northern Gaza located dozens of rockets and other weaponry hidden under boxes with UNRWA markings in a residential home, the military said. READ MORE