IDF claims Israel ‘almost at full operational control’ of northern Gaza, warns Hamas chief: ‘Will meet the barrels of our guns’
Israel claimed Friday to be “almost at full operational control” of northern Gaza — while vowing that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar will “meet the barrels of our guns soon.”
The Israel Defense Forces said it was still fighting the last Hamas terror squad still standing in Gaza City, as well as “lower intensity” battles with other units in the northern regions of the strip, according to the Times of Israel.
“We are almost at full operational control in the north” of the Gaza Strip, IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari told a press conference.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also told his military leaders Friday that the advances mean they are closing in on most-wanted terrorist Sinwar, 61, who has led Hamas since 2017.
“One thing is clear, Yahya Sinwar now hears the IDF [tank treads] above him, the Air Force bombs and the IDF’s operations,” Gallant said, according to the paper.
“He will also meet the barrels of our guns soon.”
Sinwar is believed to be hiding underground in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the Times of Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently called him a “dead man walking” and Israel has dropped leaflets in Gaza offering $400,000 rewards for help getting to him, ABC News reported.
On Thursday, the IDF shared a video on X of troops uncovering a tunnel allegedly used by the terror group near the home of Sinwar’s aide-de-camp.
During the Friday meeting, Gallant also laid out the progress of Israel’s retaliatory ground assault on Gaza, which started after Hamas terrorists massacred 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
He also confirmed that the military is close to completing its “dismantling of the Hamas battalions and the elimination of its underground capabilities” in the north.
“We are also operating in the Khan Younis area and the south of the Gaza Strip, and we will operate in other places in the future,” Gallant concluded.
Also on Friday, the IDF said that fighter jets had completed additional strikes against Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in response to attacks on the Israeli-Lebanese border that killed an Israeli soldier earlier in the day, the Times of Israel added.
Several rockets were set off at Menara, in northern Israel, which set off sirens in the community, the IDF explained.
Mortars were also shot at Metula, which sits just over the border.
The strikes against Hezbollah’s holdings came just a few hours after the IDF announced that Sgt. Amit Hod Ziv, 19, was killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on the Shtula area in northern Israel.
Another soldier, who has not been named, was hospitalized with serious injuries.
Both Ziv and the wounded soldier were part of the 188th Armored Brigade’s 71st Battalion, the Times of Israel reported.
On Friday, Gaza’s Hamas-led health ministry claimed that the death toll surpassed 20,000 on Friday, which would amount to nearly 1% of the territory’s prewar population. However, because the region is under the control of terrorists, it is impossible to corroborate numbers.
On Friday, the United Nations Security Council passed a new resolution that calls for speeding up humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza, but without the original insistence on an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas.
The US and Russia abstained from Friday’s vote, which was delayed for days as diplomats sought to avoid a veto by the US, Israel’s closest ally.
With Post wires
