IDF expands ground operation in both the northern and southern Gaza Strip, ordering new wave of mass evacuations and striking Hamas positions as Gaza health ministry claims 20 killed in raids in Rafah district.
By David Rosenberg, World Israel News
The Israeli military expanded its ground operation in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, seizing control off Gaza’s southernmost Mediterranean coast a day after the IDF broadened its presence in northern Gaza.
According to an IDF spokesman, on Saturday, Israeli ground forces began operating in the Beit Hanoun area of northern Gaza to “target Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure and expand the security zone in the northern part of the Strip.”
The area was not hermetically sealed, however, enabling civilians to evacuate the combat zone for their safety.
During the operation, the IDF struck multiple Hamas targets and terrorist infrastructure in northern Gaza using fighter jets.
A day later, the IDF’s Arabic language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, announced that the Israeli army is continuing to operate in the northern Gaza Strip and that IDF forces have also moved into the Tel al-Sultan area of the southern Gaza Strip, northwest of Rafah, along the Egyptian border.
Adraee issued warnings to residents of the Tel al-Sultan area, urging them to evacuate immediately by foot toward the Bedouin enclave of al-Mawasi.
“The IDF has launched an attack to strike at terrorist organizations. The area you are in is considered a dangerous combat zone,”Adraee said. “Gush Katif Street is considered a humanitarian route for your use in order to move to the Mawasi area.”
Only pedestrian traffic is permitted out of Tel al-Sultan, Adraee said. “Staying in shelters, tents, and houses, or traveling via other unspecified roads, puts your life and the lives of your families at risk. Evacuate the area immediately.”
The IDF published a map attached to Adraee’s Arabic message delineating the evacuation zone.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry reported 23 dead in Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday.
In an overnight IDF airstrike, senior Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil was killed in his tent near the village of al-Mawasi.
