- IDF has raided ‘a compound used by commander of Hamas’ Khan Yunis brigade’
- Army said it seized weapons and confirmed air and naval strikes on the city
The Israeli army has taken out of group of armed Hamas terrorists who were reportedly trying to ‘shoot at’ troops and ‘plant explosives’ nearby.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the terrorists had been targeting soldiers operating in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, when snipers from the Paratroopers Brigade ‘eliminated the threat’.
Video posted to X on Sunday afternoon shows how snipers precisely located terrorists walking through the city streets before shooting them from an Israeli Air Force aircraft.
The army also destroyed a cell allegedly used by Hamas to hide weapons. The building appeared to erupt in flames after being struck by the soldiers, spewing debris through the air.
IDF released the video after Israeli strikes across Gaza killed scores overnight and battles raged Sunday in the besieged territory’s south as Hamas was said to be reviewing a proposal for a halt in the nearly four-month-long war.
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne was in Egypt and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expected in the region in the coming days to push for a ceasefire and hostage release.
The army said Sunday that its troops had raided ‘a compound used by the commander of Hamas’s Khan Yunis brigade’ and seized weapons, also confirming air and naval strikes on the city.
It reported several militants had been killed after attempting to attack Israeli troops.
Strikes and tank fire were reported in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city, with some air raids also allegedly hitting nearby Rafah.
Israel has warned its ground forces could advance on Rafah as part of its campaign to eliminate Hamas terrorists.
The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory said at least 127 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours in the Gaza Strip, more than 90 of them overnight.
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 Mohammed Kloub told reporters in Rafah, which according to United Nations (UN) figures now hosts more than half of Gaza’s population.
With the war set to enter a fifth month on Wednesday, international mediators were pressing to seal a proposed truce deal thrashed out in a Paris meeting of top US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials.
Sejourne, at the start of his first Middle East tour as foreign minister, said on social media that he told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi of France’s desire ‘for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and restarting talks for a… two-state solution’.
A top Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said Saturday the group needed more time to ‘announce our position’.
Hamdan added that Hamas wanted ‘to put an end as quickly as possible to the aggression that our people suffer’.
A Hamas source has said the proposal involves an initial six-week pause that would see more aid delivered into Gaza and the phased release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Terrorists 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 territory’s health ministry.
Gazans have faced dire humanitarian conditions, and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on social media platform X that ‘there is very limited access to clean water and sanitation amid relentless bombardment.’
Experts and rights groups have claimed that Israeli forces have destroyed buildings near the border in an attempt to create a buffer zone inside the Palestinian territory.
Israel has not publicly confirmed the plan, which Nadia Hardman, an expert on refugees at Human Rights Watch, said ‘may amount to a war crime’.
‘We are seeing mounting evidence that Israel appears to be rendering large parts of Gaza unlivable,’ she said.
Concern for hostages still in Gaza and security failures surrounding the October 7 attack – the deadliest in Israel’s 75-year history – have led to criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rallies against the government.
Michal Hadas, protesting in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, told AFP she feared Israel’s leaders were dragging out the conflict for political reasons, ‘because as long as the war continues there will be no election’.
The war has also sent regional tensions soaring, with a surge in attacks by Iran-backed groups in solidarity with Gaza triggering counterattacks by key Israel ally the United States.
The United States and its partner Britain said they struck dozens of targets in Yemen late Saturday in response to repeated attacks on shipping by Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
A Huthi spokesman said the latest wave of air strikes ‘will not pass without response and punishment’.
Iran said the attacks ‘contradicted’ US and UK statements on preventing regional escalation, and Hamas warned the strikes would bring ‘further turmoil’ to the Middle East.
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Natasha Anderson
