Israel’s policy for Gaza is to “remove threats, eliminate terrorists, and exact retribution from anyone who took part in the [Oct. 7, 2023,] massacre,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday.
The Israel Defense Forces eliminated Hamas terrorists in Gaza earlier in the day and will “continue to act with force to protect our soldiers and ensure the peace for the southern communities—from within the security zone,” Katz added in Hebrew.
The IDF presently controls roughly half of the Gaza Strip, a territory referred to as the security zone.
Katz’s statement comes on the backdrop of increased IDF activity in the Gaza Strip over the past week, as well as the arrival in Israel of U.S. special envoy Jared Kushner, who is leading international efforts to demilitarize the Palestinian territory.
The IDF targeted a gathering of Hamas Nukhba Force commanders in an airstrike in the Shati area in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, including a terrorist who participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
According to the military, the strike killed a company commander, three platoon commanders and several other terrorists who were planning attacks against Israeli troops operating in the enclave. One of the terrorists had infiltrated Israeli territory during the Oct. 7 invasion, the IDF said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the IDF said it had killed on Aug. 16 a Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander who infiltrated Kibbutz Be’eri and participated in the abduction of an Israeli civilian during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
Tareq Anwar Khamis Ra’i, a company commander in PIJ’s supply unit, was killed in an Israeli strike in the Khan Yunis area, according to the military. The IDF said he had recently been advancing terrorist attacks against Israeli troops and civilians.
The army said it used precise munitions and aerial surveillance to mitigate harm to civilians.
In addition, IDF troops sealed two Hamas underground tunnel routes east of the Yellow Line, totaling more than two kilometers in central and southern Gaza, the military said on Wednesday.
Soldiers under the command of the Gaza Division’s Engineering Unit completed the operation as part of the effort to neutralize the Palestinian terrorist organizations’ tunnel network across the Gaza Strip, the IDF said.
Kushner: Washington addressed Jerusalem concerns over Gaza roadmap
Meanwhile on Monday, Kushner said that progress toward Gaza’s demilitarization could begin within 30 days, following a nearly four-hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Kushner told Fox News that Washington would not support rebuilding Gaza before demilitarization, adding that the administration had addressed Israeli concerns about the Board of Peace roadmap and clarified that Israel’s right to act against imminent threats would not be restricted.
Top Israeli officials, including the prime minister, have repeatedly stated that the IDF will not leave Gaza before Hamas is fully disarmed.
Netanyahu on Aug. 9 said publicly that “Israel rejects the 15-point document,” referring to the disarmament roadmap announced by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace on July 30.
On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said that there was no disagreement between Israel and the United States over disarming Hamas and ensuring the terrorist group has no future in the Gaza Strip.
Huckabee, who attended meetings on Monday with Netanyahu, described the talks as “intense and thoughtful, but respectful.”
He rejected reports of a rift, saying some accounts of the discussions were “simply fake news” and “invented out of thin air.”
A Hamas delegation arrived earlier in the week in Egypt to probe alternative ways of advancing the 15-point roadmap, a Hamas official told AFP.
The source was quoted as saying that talks would cover “the latest developments in the negotiations and the efforts being made to compel Israel to abide by the agreement,” apparently referring to previous Hamas statements that it would start handing its arms to a technocratic Palestinian body only after the IDF withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
Leaders of the terrorist group also reportedly met with Kushner.
