Israeli troops operating in Gaza City killed Hamas gunmen who opened fire on them Monday morning, seriously wounding an officer, the military said, as medical sources in the Hamas-run Strip reported at least 29 people killed by Israeli fire since dawn, 25 of them in Gaza City.
Air defenses also shot down a rocket launched from Gaza City at the Israeli border community of Nir Oz on Monday afternoon. The attack on Nahal Oz did not cause damage or injuries and was preceded by sirens activated in open areas, the Israel Defense Forces said.
It was the second rocket launch in as many days from Gaza City, which the IDF seeks to take over in a ground offensive launched last week.
Meanwhile, the IDF said it had struck and destroyed the Gaza City building from which Hamas fired two rockets at Israel’s southern port city of Ashdod on Sunday.
The IDF strike was carried out by the 215th Artillery Regiment, which is operating in Gaza City under the 162nd Division, the military said. Other forces of the division demolished Hamas infrastructure and killed 15 gunmen who were identified near the troops, according to the military.
Also in Gaza City, the 98th Division directed an Israeli Air Force drone strike on a Hamas weapons manufacturing site, and another drone strike that killed a cell of operatives who had been identified near the troops, the IDF said.
In the Strip’s south, a drone strike was also carried out on a building where soldiers from the IDF’s Gaza Division had spotted several Hamas operatives, the military said.
During the 162nd Division’s operations in the city’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, a cell of three operatives wielding RPGs and sniper rifles opened fire on a tank and troops of the 401st Armored Brigade, according to an IDF probe of the incident.
A short while later, a company commander in the Givati Infantry Brigade’s Shaked Battalion led troops in a pursuit of the cell. During the battle, the company commander was seriously wounded, and all three gunmen were killed by the Givati soldiers and tank shelling by the 401st Brigade, the IDF said, adding that the wounded officer was taken to a hospital for treatment.
A video released by the IDF showed one of the gunmen fleeing while being tracked by an army drone, before a tank of the 401st Armored Brigade fires a shell that kills him. Images published by the IDF showed the weapons the three gunmen were carrying.
Israel has called on Gaza City’s roughly 1 million Palestinian residents to flee ahead of the offensive there. According to the military’s assessments, over 550,000 have left the city.
The Gaza City offensive has been criticized by Israeli hostage families and, reportedly, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who says that it would endanger troops and the remaining 48 captives.
Aid agencies have warned that the offensive would deepen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza City, where the UN declared a famine last month in a report rejected by Israel.
In a statement on Monday, the Hamas health ministry said Gaza City’s eye hospital and Rantisi Children’s Hospital have been taken out of service amid Israel’s escalation of its Gaza City offensive.
The children’s hospital was reportedly damaged in an Israeli strike a few days ago, and the eye hospital was forced to suspend its services due to Israeli attacks in the area, the ministry said.
“The occupation deliberately and systematically targets the healthcare system in the Gaza Governate as part of its genocidal policy against the Strip,” said the ministry, referring to Israel, which has rejected accusations of genocide. “None of the facilities or hospitals have safe access routes that allow patients and the wounded to reach them.”
There was no immediate Israeli comment. Israel has accused Hamas of using Gaza’s civilians as human shields and embedding itself in civilian infrastructure, including hospitals.
A recent Israeli strike on the central Gaza Strip killed the Hamas naval police’s deputy commander, who invaded Israel during the terror group’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the Gaza war, the IDF said Monday.
The strike that killed Iyad Abu Yousef was carried out by the Israeli Air Force and based on intelligence from the Naval Intelligence Division and the Military Intelligence Directorate, according to the military.
Throughout the Gaza war, Abu Yousef planned ambushes against Israeli troops and was involved in securing Hamas assets, the IDF said, adding that “his elimination constitutes a significant blow to the capabilities of Hamas’s naval police, which is used for gathering intelligence on our forces and enforcing maritime control for the organization’s military wing.”
The IDF released footage showing the airstrike that killed Abu Yousef, along with a video showing the Israeli Navy’s 916th Patrol Squadron shelling a Hamas operative on the coast of northern Gaza over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said UN fuel tankers had entered Gaza for the operation of essential humanitarian systems.
In addition, the agency said nearly 460 trucks carrying humanitarian aid had entered Gaza on Sunday through the Kerem Shalom crossing with southern Gaza and the Kissufim crossing with central Gaza.
According to COGAT, some 310 trucks’ worth of aid were also collected by the United Nations and other international organizations from the Gaza side of the crossings on Sunday for distribution.
“The contents of hundreds of trucks are still awaiting collection on the Gazan side of the crossings,” said COGAT, which has accused Hamas and the UN of impeding aid deliveries.
The agency added that aid collection will “continue on the Gazan side of the crossings, despite the closure on the Israeli side” due to the Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins Monday night and will last until Wednesday night.
Similar amounts of aid deliveries have been reported daily in the past few weeks. The UN has said 600 trucks of aid need to be distributed each day in order to properly feed the Strip’s roughly two million people amid the war.