Israeli ground forces pressed further into Gaza City on Sunday, expanding operations into several residential neighborhoods as the campaign to break Hamas control entered a new stage. Witnesses and medics reported tanks advancing through Sabra, Tel Al-Hawa, Sheikh Radwan, and Al-Naser, with strikes hitting areas where many civilians are still sheltering. Local health services, already strained, said they were unable to respond to a flood of emergency calls.
The 98th Division announced it had “deepened their operational control” in the city, directing strikes against Hamas strongholds and fighters over the past day. The Gaza Division simultaneously carried out operations further south, where soldiers destroyed Hamas surveillance systems and killed operatives in direct clashes.
In one battle inside Gaza City, Golani Brigade troops spotted five Hamas members firing RPGs toward a building where the soldiers were positioned. The military said the attack caused no injuries. Israeli forces then called in a drone strike that eliminated the cell.
The intensification of fighting came as the IDF reported that airstrikes had targeted roughly 140 sites tied to terror activity, including infrastructure and operatives. Medical officials in Gaza, controlled by Hamas, claimed at least 77 people were killed in those strikes within 24 hours.
As the offensive has unfolded, Israel has repeatedly told Gaza City residents to evacuate. According to military estimates, around 780,000 of the city’s million residents have fled, though Hamas’s government media office insists the number is closer to 190,000.
Amid this backdrop, Hamas issued a rare and startling statement on Sunday. The al-Qassam Brigades said they had lost contact with two hostages during Israeli military operations in Gaza City. The group demanded the IDF “withdraw to the south of Street Eight (one of the streets in Gaza City) and halt aerial sorties for 24 hours starting at 6 p.m. today so that attempts can be made to extract the prisoners (hostages).”
The reference to a specific location where hostages might be held was considered highly unusual. Both captives were seized in the October 7, 2023, attacks that set off the war. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum responded by saying the families of those hostages were working with officials to examine Hamas’s claim and requested that their names not be made public.
For months, hostage families have warned that military operations in Gaza City could put their loved ones at risk. Israeli authorities say that terror groups in the enclave are currently holding 48 hostages. That number includes 47 taken in the October 7 assault, along with the body of an IDF officer killed in Gaza back in 2014. The military believes 20 captives are still alive, 26 are confirmed dead, and at least two are in extremely poor condition.
The hostage issue remains deeply intertwined with the wider toll of the war. According to Hamas’s health ministry, over 66,000 people in Gaza have been killed or are presumed dead, though the figures cannot be independently confirmed and do not separate civilians from combatants. Israel counters that its forces have eliminated more than 22,000 Hamas fighters inside Gaza and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
In earlier stages of the war, Hamas released dozens of hostages during temporary truces. During the late November 2023 weeklong pause, 105 civilians were freed. Thirty more — including Israelis, Thai nationals, and soldiers — were released between January and March 2024, along with the remains of eight slain captives. In May 2024, Hamas released one dual American-Israeli citizen, calling it a “gesture” to Washington. Israel, in turn, freed roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and suspects.
Israeli forces have succeeded in rescuing eight hostages alive through operations. The bodies of 51 others have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by Israeli troops during an escape attempt, as well as the body of a soldier killed in 2014.
Meanwhile, a separate development stirred controversy. The Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Israel approached two large Gaza City families — the Durmush and Bakr clans — with a proposal to create anti-Hamas enclaves in the city, modeled on arrangements in Gaza’s south. The offer would have required them to share intelligence and confront Hamas directly.
According to the report, both families rejected the plan on Friday. By Shabbos, Israeli strikes had leveled several of their homes, leaving 36 people dead, the paper said. A Bakr family member, who did not wish to be named, confirmed the outreach.
This latest phase of the war underscores the fierce struggle over Gaza City — with Hamas issuing unprecedented hostage claims, Israel pressing its ground and air assaults, and civilians caught in the middle as the conflict shows no sign of abating.
{Matzav.com Israel}
