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The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced late on March 20 that it had expanded its ground operations in the southern Gaza Strip.
In the past few hours, troops advanced into the Shaboura camp in Rafah, and destroyed “terror infrastructure,” the military said in a statement, adding that its troops continue to operate on the coast in northern Gaza and the Netzarim Corridor area in the center of the Strip.
According to the IDF, Israeli troops destroyed infrastructure in northern Gaza that was used by Hamas as a command center in recent months to plan and launch attacks on troops and civilians. In addition, strikes were carried out across Gaza, targeting Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad sites, the military noted.
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In a statement released earlier, the IDF and Shin Bet announced that two top officials of the Hamas Movement were killed in strikes on Gaza.
One was named by the military as Rashid Jahjouh, the head of Hamas’s “general security mechanism.” Jahjouh had replaced Sami Odeh, who was killed, along with other top Hamas officials, in an Israeli strike in July of last year.
Another top Hamas official killed in a recent airstrike in Gaza is named as Amin Eslaiah, the head of the security mechanism in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.
The security mechanism, according to the military, is a clandestine Hamas body responsible for uncovering “collaborators” with Israel; security for top Hamas officials and assets in Gaza and outside of the Strip; and oppression of opponents to Hamas’s rule.
The mechanism is also charged with building intelligence pictures for top Hamas officials on which they could make decisions, the IDF said.
Separately, the IDF said that a strike killed a prominent Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative involved in smuggling weapons to the group. Ismail Abd al-Alal, according to the military, “led most of the weapon smuggling efforts for the PIJ in recent years.”
On March 21, video footage posted to social networks showed the IDF blowing up the so-called Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in central Gaza.
On the same day, Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to annex areas of Gaza to Israel if Hamas refuses to release the hostages it is still holding.
In a statement, Katz revealed that he had instructed the IDF to seize additional areas of Gaza while issuing evacuation orders for Palestinian civilians in those areas.
“If the Hamas terror organization continues to refuse to release the hostages, I instructed the IDF to capture additional areas, evacuate the population, and expand the security zone around Gaza for the protection of Israeli communities and IDF soldiers, through a permanent hold of the area by Israel,” the minister said
“As long as Hamas continues its refusal, it will lose more and more land that will be added to Israel,” he added.
Katz also said that Israel will “intensify” its military campaign against Hamas, including “through the expansion of the ground maneuver until the hostages are released and Hamas is defeated.”
He warned that Israel will use “all military and civilian pressure, including evacuation of the Gaza population south and implementing U.S. President Trump’s voluntary migration plan for Gaza residents.”
Meanwhile, senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told Al-Jazeera on March 21 that indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a renewed ceasefire have not stopped, and efforts to reach a point that would allow the deal to be put back into effect are ongoing.
According to al-Nunu, Hamas showed sufficient flexibility to resume the ceasefire agreement, but Israel refused these attempts.
Israel renewed its military operations in Gaza early on March 18, citing Hamas’s “repeated refusal” to free Israeli hostages. According to the Hamas-run health ministry, the renewed attack on the Strip has so far claimed the lives of more than 600 Palestinians, including women and children.
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yes!
yes!
yes!
given the war crimes of the jews for more than 100 years evidencing an inability to live according to rules agreed by man the consequence is that it is obvious that the jews have no intention to abide by mankind’s rules and thus have no right to occupy any part of mankinds earth and should be taken out and buried at 6 feet. no use of jews. greed (a jewish trait) is the mother of all misery!
antisemites are sad today…heheheh
aren’t they ever…
lol
jooz are bloodthirsty today aren’t they ever.
isn’t your gf stronger than you? meet you in dubrovnik in summer.
but i think that you are scared and have no man’s dignity. i spit to your kids face.
the zionist murder cult on full display . but the land is on the med and has the best weather in the world . the zionists know they are despised globally by thier works . but israelis are in protest daily against thier own government . this is not a stable population with sound ideals . it is a dystopian congregation that has no clue on how to make peace and survive in the long term .