The Israel Defense Forces said its troops have fully encircled Gaza City and split the entire Gaza Strip in two. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, told reporters that soldiers from the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit “reached the coastline and are holding it.”
“Today, there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Adm. Hagari told reporters Monday.
As Israeli ground forces continued their advance along the northwestern Gaza coast, the IDF overnight confirmed the death of another senior Hamas official. On Monday, the IDF said it killed Wael Asfeh, the commander of the terror group’s Deir al Balah Battalion, in an overnight airstrike in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF said Mr. Asfeh, along with other Hamas leaders, sent militants into Israeli communities near Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, who killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took hundreds hostage who remain in captivity.
“The IDF said Asfeh was jailed by Israel between 1992 and 1998 for his involvement in a number of attacks against Israeli communities,” according to the Times of Israel newspaper.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has claimed that about 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by IDF bombings since the start of the Hamas-Israel war. Israel has accused Hamas of committing war crimes by locating military command posts and weapons depots inside protected sites like hospitals, schools and mosques.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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