Day 252: Despite increasingly hot northern border, IDF continues targets operations in Gaza

Air raid sirens rang out across Israel’s northern border communities on Friday morning, as Hezbollah and the IDF appear to be locked in an increasingly escalating exchange of fire across the Lebanon border. 

The IDF struck a Hezbollah structure in Jarmac, southern Lebanon, on Thursday night. 

On Friday morning, the terror group launched several projectiles toward Israel’s northern communities, with residents reporting falls in the area around Kiryat Shmona. Residents also reported that several brush fires were ignited by the projectiles.

Also on Thursday night, several launches from the northern Gaza Strip were identified crossing into southern Israel. A number of the projectiles were intercepted by the IDF Aerial Defense Array with the rest falling in open areas. No injuries were reported. IDF aircraft and artillery struck the launch sites from which the projectiles were fired, as well as a weapons storage facility in the vicinity. 

In Rafah, IDF troops are continuing intelligence-based, targeted operations. Over the past day, the troops eliminated a number of terrorists and located several caches of weapons as well as underground tunnel shafts. 

Soldiers from the Nahal Brigade located and destroyed a number of explosive devices, as well as Hamas terrorist infrastructure sites. In one incident, a terrorist that was identified as approaching IDF troops was eliminated in an aerial strike. 

Arab reports said that IDF tanks advanced deeper into the western part of Rafah following strikes from air, sea, and land forces. Some locals reported that IDF forces were moving in the direction of the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone in the western Gaza Strip. 

The IDF denied any strikes in al-Mawasi. 

In central Gaza, soldiers with the 99th Division identified a number of terrorists operating in a military structure in the area of Zeitoun. An IAF fighter jet struck the structure, killing the terrorists.

Another terrorist cell that was seen operating nearby was also struck by an IAF aircraft. 

On Thursday afternoon, the IDF announced that soldiers of the 99th Division, along with combat engineering forces, destroyed an 800-meter-long (2,625-foot), 30-meter-deep (100-foot) tunnel in the central Gaza corridor. The tunnel was about one kilometer from the border with Israel.

According to the IDF, the tunnel included underground operational facilities that had been used by Hamas.

Palestinians in Zeitoun reported artillery strikes in the city on Thursday evening, and the Gaza Health Ministry claimed that seven people were killed in the shelling.

The central Gaza Strip, including Zeitoun, has seen increased clashes between IDF and Hamas over the past few days as the IDF continues operations to degrade Hamas' fighting ability in the area.

With further hostage ceasefire talks apparently stalled, Israeli analysts have claimed that Hamas has little incentive to agree to any deal. U.S. President Joe Biden recently called Hamas the “biggest hang-up so far” for refusing to sign the ceasefire-hostage agreement, "even though they have submitted something similar.” 

Hamas is reportedly unwilling to accept any proposal that does not include a permanent ceasefire in the first phase, while Israel is unwilling to commit to a permanent ceasefire in the first phase, as that would leave Hamas in power in Gaza.