Beirut: The IDF announced that it had killed the head of Hamas’ naval force in Khan Yunis, Amar Abu Jallah, in a targeted air strike, news agency ANI reported.
Abu Jallah was responsible for planning and executing several naval attacks against Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza, but they were all thwarted by the Israeli forces.
The IDF also said that it had destroyed various Hamas assets near the coast, such as weapons depots, tunnel entrances, training camps and observation posts, with the help of a naval intelligence ship. The IDF said that these strikes were aimed at crippling Hamas’ naval capabilities and preventing further terror attacks from the sea.
Meanwhile, the four-day ceasefire between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas will commence Friday, but experts say after a short pause fighting will resume with intensity for at least two months, The Times of Israel has reported.
Ahead of the slated lull in fighting, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday that once the “short” temporary truce with Hamas ends, the military campaign would resume “with intensity” for at least two more months.
“What you will see in the coming days is first the release of hostages. This respite will be short,” Gallant told troops of the Navy’s Shayetet 13 elite commando unit. “What is required of you in this respite is to organize, get ready, investigate, resupply arms, and get ready to continue.”
“There will be a continuation, because we need to complete the victory and create the impetus for the next groups of hostages, who will only come back as a result of pressure,” he added.
The hostage release deal, mediated by the US and Qatar will see at least 50 Israeli women and children taken hostage during the October 7 offensive be released.
In return, Israel will release 150 Palestinian prisoners, all of them women or minors as well as a four-day break in the conflict to provide essential humanitarian aid, The Times of Israel has reported. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi echoed Gallant’s comments earlier in the day, saying that the military is “not ending the war.”
“We are trying to connect the goals of the war so that the pressure from the ground operation brings about the ability to also achieve the [other] goal of this war to create the conditions for the release of the abducted hostages,” Halevi told commanders during a visit to Gaza, reported The Times of Israel.