Gaza, Hamas stronghold surrounded. In the kasbah “rockets ready for launch”

The last 24 hours have been the deadliest since the start of the war for Israel: 21 soldiers died, buried by the collapse of two buildings that exploded while they were inspecting them; and three other officers died during fierce fighting to capture the city of Khan Younis, a Hamas stronghold in the southern Gaza Strip. A tragic number that brings to 219 the number of Israeli soldiers who have died since the start of the ground operation in Gaza. “Yesterday we lost 24 of our best heroic sons who fell in defense of the homeland. We are in the middle of an unjust war, but there are also very heavy costs,” said Benjamin Netanyahu. “We continue in the spirit of the fallen, to complete missions and accomplish whatever is necessary,” Gallant repeated. After weeks of grueling fighting, Tel Aviv forces said they had completed the siege of the targeted area in the south of the Strip.

According to what the IDF reported in its X profile, the urban area was surrounded by two brigades, the 7th Armored and the Givati. The 98th Division, meanwhile, conducted a major offensive operation in the western part. Tel Aviv soldiers then carried out an attack on the kasbah, eliminating “many dozens of terrorists” and destroying hundreds of targets. During the operation, soldiers found rockets ready for imminent launch, tunnels and weapons caches. The Israeli authorities also ordered the evacuation of several sectors of Khan Younis, to prevent the civilian population from being caught in the middle of the clashes. “To residents of Khan Yunis area in Al-Nasr, Al-Amal, Downtown and Blocks 107-112: For your safety, you should immediately move to the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi via Al-Bahr Street,” it said army spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote in X. According to what we read in the Times of Israel, the intensity of the fighting has increased dramatically in the last 24 hours. Israeli soldiers said they killed “Hamas fighters brandishing RPGs a few dozen meters away, gunmen who opened fire, and agents who sprayed explosives on buildings and streets.”