
The IDF has left Jabaliya after twenty days of fighting. In Jabaliya, soldiers of the 7th, 460th and Paratroopers Brigades under the 98th Division operated above ground and underground, in a dense urban area, rigged with explosives.
“The Hamas terrorist organization turned the civilian area into a fortified combat compound, fired towards the troops from sheltered areas and schools, and built an underground terrorist network from within civilian buildings,” the IDF emphasized.
IDF troops eliminated hundreds of terrorists in intense combat and close-quarters encounters. They also located and destroyed dozens of terrorist infrastructures and combat locations.
The troops seized hundreds of Hamas weapons, including firearms, explosives, grenades, ammunition and more.
The IDF also destroyed multiple sites of significant weapons production. As part of dismantling the capabilities of the Hamas terrorist organization, the soldiers raided a large number of rocket launching compounds, and destroyed rocket launchers which were ready for use against Israel.
Underground the soldiers, working together with the special Yahalom Unit, destroyed more than ten kilometers of an underground tunnel network. The soldiers neutralized explosives in the tunnels and found weapons and intelligence information about the Hamas terrorist organization inside the tunnels.
In underground fighting, the Commander of the Beit Hanoun Battalion and other terrorists who were with him were eliminated.
In Jabaliya, the IDF rescued seven bodies of hostages – Shani Louk, Amit Buskila, Ron Benjamin, Yitzchak Gelernter, Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum, and Orion Hernandez – and returned them for proper burial in Israel.
From the air, more than 200 aerial strikes were carried out in close proximity to the operating troops, during which dozens of terrorists were eliminated, most of them at the command level in Hamas and dozens of terrorist infrastructure and weapon warehouses were destroyed.
“The troops of the 98th Division have completed their mission in eastern Jabaliya and remain combat ready, and are preparing to continue operations in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF stated.
{Matzav.com}