IDF conducts ‘localized’ ops in Gaza as war enters 2nd week
Army kills infiltrators on Galilee border.
Israel Defense Forces troops launched “localized” raids into the Gaza Strip on Friday in a bid to locate hostages Hamas kidnapped last weekend.
Soldiers found and recovered the remains of some of the estimated 120 missing.
The IDF also killed Murad Abu Murad, the head of Hamas’s aerial array in Gaza, in an overnight airstrike.
Abu Murad “took a big part in directing terrorists during the massacre” of 1,300 Israelis during last Saturday’s invasion of the western Negev.
Israel has instructed residents of northern Gaza to evacuate to the southern part of the Strip using humanitarian corridors that have been set up between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The IDF notified the United Nations overnight Thursday that some 1.1 million Palestinians residing north of Wadi Gaza need to leave their homes ahead of an anticipated major ground operation to root out Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure.
On Saturday, the IDF continued to drop leaflets in Gaza urging residents to flee.
“Dear residents, the terrorist organizations began a war against the State of Israel and Gaza City became a battle zone. You must evacuate your home immediately and leave south. For your safety and security, you are not allowed to return home until further notice from the Israel Defense Forces,” read the leaflets.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters on Friday that the evacuation order was meant to limit Palestinian civilian casualties.
“We are fighting a terror group, not the Gazan population. We don’t want to harm civilians, but we cannot live with Hamas-ISIS rule near our border,” he said.
“Hamas carried out one of the most horrific acts the world has ever seen. We are conducting an effort to evacuate residents to increase our freedom of movement to deepen the damage [to Hamas], to destroy it,” Hagari said.
Hamas is doing its best to prevent residents of northern Gaza from moving to safety; Hagari accused the terrorist group of risking “disaster.”
“The responsibility for what may happen to those who do not evacuate is on Hamas’s head,” he said.
An IDF ground invasion would likely begin in northern Gaza to reduce Hamas’s capacity to fire rockets at Israeli towns and cities.
The military also continues to repel Gazans attempting to infiltrate Israel, with IDF tank fire killing two terrorists overnight Friday close to Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
Hagari on Friday said that the vast majority of the estimated 2,500 terrorists who perpetrated the brutal cross-border raid were already dead.
Meanwhile, Hamas was continuing to pummel southern and central Israel with rockets fired from Gaza.
Rockets are fired from Gaza towards Israel, in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 10, 2023.
The north
IDF troops killed some four terrorists attempting to infiltrate Israel from Lebanon on Saturday.
The military said it conducted a drone strike against the terror cell after it was identified attempting to cross the border.
Air-raid sirens blared across northern Israel on Friday as Hamas terrorists in Gaza fired a long-range rocket at the Galilee, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed.
Hezbollah also shot into northern Israel on Friday, and the IDF returned fire. The IDF posted that one of its drones struck “terrorist targets belonging to Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned on Friday that Tehran’s other terror proxies would join the war if Israel continues to attack Hamas.
“Some Western officials have questioned if there is an intention to open a new front against the Zionist entity. Of course, in light of the continuation of these circumstances that are war crimes,” Amir-Abdollahian told journalists in Beirut.
“The continuation of war crimes against Palestine and Gaza will receive a response from the rest of the Axis. And naturally, the Zionist entity and its supporters will be responsible for the consequences of that,” he added.
The “Axis of Resistance” refers to Hezbollah, Hamas and other Iranian-backed terror groups along Israel’s borders.
On Friday, the Islamic Republic’s top diplomat met with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. The terror group subsequently announced it was ready to join Hamas in the war against Israel.
“We are fully prepared, and when the time comes for action, we will take it,” Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem told Hezbollah supporters in the suburbs of Beirut.
Global support
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to lead a delegation of members of Congress to Israel this weekend “to show the United States’ unwavering support for Israel,” a spokesperson for the senator told JNS.
Schumer “will meet with the new unity government, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, as well as President Isaac Herzog,” per the spokesperson. “Sen. Schumer will discuss what resources the United States can provide to support Israel on all fronts.”
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel in recent days. The Pentagon also dispatched the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the region to dissuade other countries or groups from entering the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv on Friday.
Shortly thereafter, Netanyahu became the first Israeli leader to address the nation on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, in nearly three decades.
“Shabbat Shalom to our forces deployed across the country who are celebrating the Sabbath in the field, far from home,” Netanyahu began.
“Today, we all understand that we are fighting for our home. And we are all fighting tooth and nail: soldiers, police officers, citizens, security forces, health personnel and rescue teams—and Israel’s citizens, with your extraordinary volunteering spirit that has touched the entire world,” the premier continued.
“We are all mobilized; we are all united. Stories of the heroic acts of our people in these dark days of pain and grief, of that accursed Saturday, will be told for years to come. Stories that will become an integral part of the history of Israel. We will never forget the horrific acts perpetrated against us by our enemies,” said Netanyahu.
“We will obliterate Hamas, we will triumph. It might take time, but we will end this war stronger than ever. ‘May the Almighty cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them,’” he said.
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