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More than 20 rockets were fired by Hamas at southern and central Israel at the beginning of the new year, which began on Monday as Israel entered 2024. Most of them were, however, intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.
Numerous locations around the country, including Ashdod, Sderot, and other southern cities, Rehovot, Ness Ziona, Holon, Lod, and Modiin, reported hearing sirens. The Magen David Adom ambulance service reports that no injuries have been reported as of yet.
IDF asking residents to relocate as Hamas continues attacking with rockets
While its operations against Hamas continue, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) requested people in many areas of central Gaza to leave right away last week. The IDF asked residents in 15 designated blocks south of Wadi Gaza to relocate to shelters in an Arabic-language statement published on X. The camp for refugees in Al-Bureij is one of the regions.
In its message, the IDF said people in the identified blocks “must immediately move to the shelters in Deir al-Balah. A temporary tactical local suspension of military activities will be imposed for humanitarian purposes in the southern neighbourhood of Deir al-Balah from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm for provisions purposes,” CNN reported.
According to a CNN story, the IDF advised residents not to go along the Salah Al-Din route, which is the primary axis, because of the fighting in the Khan Younis neighborhood of Gaza. It said, “The IDF will allow the humanitarian movement of civilians through the bypass axis west of Khan Younis.”
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Hamas terror tunnel shafts destroyed by IDF
In the meantime, on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) discovered and demolished three terror tunnel shafts that belonged to the Hamas terror group, which is located close to the Rantisi Hospital and in the neighboring High School.
The tunnel shafts that the Hamas fighters used are dozens of metres deep and are linked by an underground network that runs beneath the hospital and into Gaza City. “IDF troops are uncovering Hamas’ tunnels inside and around multiple hospitals within Gaza. The Rantisi Hospital is just another terrorist stronghold used to connect and transfer terrorists and weapons throughout Gaza to be used against Israelis,” the IDF wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter), after recovering the tunnel.
In recent weeks, three active underground shafts near Rantisi Hospital were found and searched by IDF forces under the command of the 401st Brigade of the 162nd Division, in cooperation with Flotilla 13 and the ‘Yahalom’ Unit.
Soldiers known as “Yahalom” investigated the area and the tunnels and shafts, using a range of techniques to record the topography of the tunnels and the connections between the shafts. Interestingly, Yahalom is a sayeret unit of the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) Israeli Combat Engineering Corps.
The IDF claims that this operation showed that the shafts are linked by a vast subterranean network that runs several kilometers beneath the hospital and connects to key locations in the center of Gaza City.
