Four soldiers were killed in a Hamas attack on the outskirts of Gaza City early Monday morning, the military announced later in the day.

The announcement came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning to the residents of Gaza City to “get out,” and as the IDF continued its campaign of heavy bombardment ahead of an imminent ground offensive to capture the major city.

Three of the slain troops were named as:

They all served with the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion.

The name of the fourth soldier is to be released later, the army said.

Additionally, a soldier of the Nahal Brigade’s 50th Battalion was moderately wounded in the incident, the army said.

According to a preliminary IDF probe, three Hamas operatives launched an attack on an army encampment in the Kafr Jabalia area, on the outskirts of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, at around 6 a.m. The incident took place shortly after troops had returned to the outpost following an overnight activity.

The operatives reached a tank at the entrance to the encampment and opened fire at the commander, who had his head outside the armored vehicle’s open hatch. The gunmen then hurled an explosive device into the tank, killing the four soldiers, according to the initial investigation.

The probe also found that other soldiers stationed in the encampment returned fire at the fleeing gunmen, hitting at least two of them. During the exchange of fire, the wounded infantryman was hit in the leg, according to the IDF.

On Monday evening, minutes before the deaths of the soldiers were announced, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel had destroyed “50 terror towers” over the past two days and that it was “just a prelude” to its operation to conquer Gaza City.

Netanyahu vowed to destroy all “nests of terror” in a video statement delivered from the Israeli Air Force’s operations room, known as the pit, in the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv.

“I promised you a few days ago that we would destroy Gaza’s terror towers. This is exactly what we are doing. In the past two days, 50 of these towers have fallen. The air force brought them down. Now, all of this is just an introduction, just a prelude, to the main intense operation — a ground maneuver of our forces, who are now organizing and gathering in Gaza City,” he said.

“And so I say to the residents of Gaza, I am taking advantage of this opportunity, and listen to me carefully: You have been warned,” the premier said. “Get out of there!”

Earlier Monday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “a powerful hurricane will hit the skies of Gaza City today, and the roofs of the towers of terror will shake.”

The Israeli Air Force struck several high-rise buildings in Gaza City throughout the day, with the IDF saying it hit a tower used by Hamas for surveillance. Prior to the strike, the military issued an evacuation warning to Palestinians residing in the area.

Residents said Israeli forces pounded several districts from the air and ground, destroying clusters of homes in the Sheikh Radwan, Zeitoun, and Tuffah neighborhoods of the city.

Among at least 25 Palestinians reported killed in Gaza on Monday was Osama Balousha, a journalist for Palestinian media, medics said. Fifteen other people were killed in separate Israeli strikes and by gunfire across the enclave, medics said, taking Monday’s death toll to at least 40.

The unverified tolls do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Some one million residents are believed to have been sheltering in Gaza City — described by Israel as one of Hamas’s last strongholds — prior to the latest evacuations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that some 100,000 people had left so far.

The new military campaign, dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots B,” has drawn fierce opposition inside Israel, both from the families of many of those held hostage in the Strip and, according to widespread reports, from security officials and military brass who have warned it will endanger the remaining captives.

The Red Cross said on Monday that it had distributed over 300 tents to displacement camps in southern Gaza in recent days, but warned that the current supply of shelter materials to the enclave falls far short of urgent needs on the ground.

In addition to the 300 tents, more than 1,500 are expected to be delivered in the coming days, the Red Cross added, but said hundreds of thousands of people desperately need new tents or tarpaulins after months of wear and tear on existing supplies.

“Many displaced families are living in appalling conditions — some among the rubble of their destroyed homes, others in makeshift tents constructed from tarpaulins and scrap metal,” Sarah Davies, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Reuters.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told Reuters separately that humanitarian groups had sent “a limited number of tents” into Gaza in recent weeks, and many more were needed.

Over 1.3 million Gazans currently lack tents, according to the United Nations, and further displacement is anticipated as Israel conducts its major assault on Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of residents are still living among the ruins.

COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry agency that deals with humanitarian issues, told Reuters that 5,000 tents had entered Gaza since restrictions on shelter materials were lifted near the end of August.

Aid organizations say Israel effectively blocked deliveries of materials for shelter for nearly six months, and despite the lifting of the restriction last month, international NGOs such as CARE International, ShelterBox, and the Norwegian Refugee Council reported on Monday they have yet to receive authorization to deliver such materials.

However, COGAT said: “Every organization that wants to enter tents is absolutely allowed to do so.”

The war began following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 hostages taken to Gaza. Israel has vowed to continue the campaign until Hamas is eliminated as a threat.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 64,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it had killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 465.

Nava Freiberg contributed to this report.