Israel raids crucial Hamas training centre in Khan Younis
The facility contained models of Israeli military bases, armoured vehicles, as well as entry points to kibbutzim.
Israel’s army says it has raided a Hamas training centre in Gaza where militants prepared for the October 7 attack on Israel.
The facility in the Palestinian territory’s main southern city of Khan Younis contained models of Israeli military bases, armoured vehicles, as well as entry points to kibbutzim, the army said on Sunday (Monday AEDT).
Soldiers also raided the office of Mohammad Sinwar, a senior commander in Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. He is also the brother of Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza who is believed to be the mastermind behind the October 7 attack.
During the raid on the al-Qadisiya compound in Khan Younis, the forces encountered several militants who fired at them, the army said. The militants were “neutralised” by sniper fire, tank shelling and airstrikes, it added.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that at the nearby al-Amal hospital there were “alarming signs (of) a humanitarian disaster … after 14 days of continuous siege”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army had “destroyed 17 of 24 (Hamas) battalions. Most of the remaining battalions are in the southern Strip and in Rafah, and we will deal with them.” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, meanwhile, said: “The pressure on Hamas is working, they are in a very difficult situation and we are hitting them hard.”
With the war set to enter a fifth month on Wednesday, international mediators were pressing to seal a proposed truce agreement thrashed out in a Paris meeting of top US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken set off Sunday on what is his fifth Middle East trip since the October 7 attack by Hamas that set off the crisis.
He began his trip on Monday in Saudi Arabia before visits to Israel, Egypt and Qatar.
The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said at least 127 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the previous 24 hours in the territory.
The Hamas government media office said a kindergarten where families were sheltering was hit in the southern border city of Rafah, which is teeming with Palestinians displaced by the war.
“There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip, from north to south,” displaced man Mohammed Kloub said in Rafah, which according to UN figures now hosts more than half of Gaza’s population.
Israel has warned its ground forces could advance on Rafah as part of its campaign to eliminate Hamas.
Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of about 1200 people in Israel, mostly civilians. Militants also seized around 250 hostages, and Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, including at least 27 believed to have been killed.
Vowing to eliminate Hamas, Israel launched a massive military offensive that has killed at least 27,365 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-ruled health ministry.
AFP
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