Residents of the northern part of Gaza reported heavy fighting from night until Tuesday morning in the outskirts of the city.
Israeli soldiers took control of a Hamas military stronghold in the city center of Gaza and targeted terrorists barricaded near a hospital, as reported by Sarbaz.kz citing the Times of Israel.
Several days after the siege of Gaza City and the assertion that the sector had been split in half, the troops appear to have focused their efforts on capturing command centers and pushing Hamas members out of hiding in the outskirts of the crowded city. Some of these hideouts, according to the army, are located near or beneath the enclave's overcrowded hospitals.
According to local residents, the Shati refugee camp, a built-up area on the northern coast of Gaza City, has been subjected to heavy aerial and naval bombardments in the last two days.
Near Al-Quds Hospital in the Shejaiya neighborhood in the city's east, soldiers claimed to have discovered several Hamas militants barricaded inside a building, intending to attack the troops. According to the IDF, an airstrike was directed at this target, resulting in "significant secondary explosions," indicating the presence of a weapons cache.
Reports from Monday evening also suggested that the fighting was approaching the Shifa Hospital, the largest medical center in the sector, which, according to Jerusalem, is located above the central Hamas command center. The Israel Defense Forces did not provide details about the captured Hamas stronghold but stated they found anti-tank missiles, launchers, reconnaissance materials, and other weaponry in the northern part of Gaza.
Military forces operating in the area also directed military aircraft to strike a Hamas cell of approximately ten members, and later carried out an additional aerial strike on a nearby anti-tank unit.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that there are many days of fighting ahead.
"We will bring Hamas to a state from which it will not recover," Gallant declared.
According to the IDF, overnight, military forces struck dozens of positions used to shell Israel with mortars. Navy forces off the enclave's coast also attacked several Hamas targets using precision weaponry.