Hamas fires rockets at Tel Aviv, a first since May, as IDF advances in Khan Younis
One projectile shot from southern Gaza city lands in sea, second impacts in Strip; military says troops have killed more than 100 gunmen in Rafah amid ongoing operation there
Hamas launched rockets toward Tel Aviv on Tuesday for the first time in months, as Israeli troops continued to operate in Gaza and Palestinian medics claimed at least 19 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes throughout the Strip.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, the terror group fired two rockets toward central Israel on Tuesday afternoon, with one falling in the sea and the second failing to cross the border and falling short inside Gaza.
No sirens were set off as neither rocket threatened any populated areas, though some residents reported hearing a loud boom from the underwater explosion.
Hamas claimed responsibility for the rockets, its first attack on Tel Aviv since late May.
The projectiles were launched from the Khan Younis area in Gaza, not far from where the 98th Division is operating.
Hamas later released footage of the failed attack, which showed operatives using makeshift rocket launchers instead of the standard launch pits that the terror group would normally use for long-range rocket fire on Israel.
The IDF has assessed that Hamas still possesses the capability to carry out attacks on central Israel or Jerusalem, but the terror group does not have many long-range rockets or launchers left to use.
Several hours after the rocket attack, the military issued a new evacuation order for Palestinians in Khan Younis, with the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman publishing a list of the zones that need to be cleared.
The announcement by Col. Avichay Adraee called for Palestinians in the specified areas to evacuate to the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone.
The military said earlier Tuesday that troops in that division were pushing ahead with a new offensive in Khan Younis, and had also targeted a cell of terrorists who had launched a site in an airstrike. Evacuation orders were also issued for these areas before the raid.
In a statement, the Israeli military said that a drone strike attacked a cell of terrorists that launched a rocket from Khan Younis at the Gaza border community of Ein Hashlosha on Monday.
According to the army, the airstrike was carried out shortly after the rocket attack, and additional strikes were carried out against sites used by terror groups in the area.
Troops on the ground in Khan Younis, meanwhile, demolished sites used by terror groups and killed several Hamas terror operatives, including others involved in rocket fire, the IDF said.
Further south, in Rafah, troops with the 162nd Division located weapons and intelligence materials in the past day, the IDF added.
Meanwhile, in the Netzarim Corridor in the Strip’s center, the IDF said troops with the 252nd Reserve Division directed strikes on numerous Hamas sites, including rocket launchers, sniper positions and observation posts.
Later Tuesday, the IDF released footage of a recent airstrike on a group of gunmen in southern Gaza’s Rafah, and said Givati Infantry Brigade troops have killed more than 100 gunmen in the city amid the ongoing operation there.
The cell targeted in Rafah had been spotted by troops of the Givati Brigade using a drone, the military said.
Overall, more than 1,000 terror operatives have been killed in Rafah since early May, according to the IDF.
In one engagement, the IDF said Givati soldiers battled and killed a cell of gunmen inside an apartment in Rafah. Inside the home, the troops found weapons, military equipment and a tunnel shaft.
Meanwhile, Palestinian medics claimed Tuesday that Israeli airstrikes had killed 19 Palestinians in the central and southern Gaza Strip over the past day. One strike reportedly killed six people in Deir Al-Balah, including a mother and her twin four-day-old babies, while seven other Palestinians were killed in a strike on a house in the nearby Al-Bureij camp.
Four people were killed in two separate strikes on the Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip and Rafah in the south, and two were killed in a strike on a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City in the north, medics said.
According to AFP, 10 members of the same family were killed in an airstrike in eastern Khan Younis on Tuesday, citing a medic from Nasser Hospital in the city.
Israel launched its war against Hamas in Gaza following the terror group’s onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, during which it killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, 111 of whom are believed to still be held in the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 39,000 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 has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 332. PJC
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