Day 81: IDF continues to take control in northern Gaza while maintaining pressure in south

The IDF is reportedly preparing to expand its operations in the southern Gaza Strip as sporadic fighting continues in the northern Gaza Strip. 

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) conducted a flyover of the Gaza Strip in which over 100 Hamas targets, including tunnel shafts, Hamas buildings, and sites used to conduct attacks on IDF forces. 

Israeli Defense officials say the IDF will eventually need to conduct operations near the Rafah border crossing in the south of Gaza, which is considered a politically volatile move and could endanger relations with Egypt. They estimate that the fighting will not stop at the end of January, but will only be a change in the method. 

In northern Gaza, the IDF said it had found the vehicle of one of the Israeli hostages at the Indonesian Hospital. The vehicle belonged to Samar Talalka, one of the hostages mistakenly killed by the IDF earlier in December. Soldiers reported seeing Hamas terrorists entering the hospital during the fighting. 

The recently destroyed tunnel where the bodies of five Israeli hostages were found is located under the Indonesian hospital. The tunnel connected to a school and the home of a Hamas brigade commander. 

The IDF also said that Hamas terrorists were eliminated while attempting to attack a tank with an improvised explosive device (IED), and the building they had been operating in was destroyed. 

According to a report in Israel's local Walla News, IDF soldiers have already begun entering deeply into some of the tunnels in Khan Younis, searching for hostages and senior Hamas leaders like Yahya Sinwar, believed to have master-planned the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. Israeli defense officials reported the IDF has estimates of where Sinwar is hiding, according to the report from Walla.

Engineering soldiers lowered a camera tens of meters deep into the tunnel system, revealing an extensive, and massive infrastructure, which was reported to be larger than anything discovered in the northern Gaza Strip. While searching the site, they discovered living rooms, confinement rooms, security rooms, meeting rooms, bathrooms, bedrooms, weapons storage and ventilation systems. 

Sinwar released a message to Hamas leadership in which he said the group would never submit to “the occupation’s conditions.” 

Palestinian terror groups Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine released a joint statement on Sunday saying they will escalate the armed struggle in Israel and strengthen cooperation in all areas.

The statement came after a meeting of senior leaders of the organizations in Beirut, including the deputy leader of Hamas Salah Arori, the PIJ secretary-general Ziyad Nachala and the deputy secretary-general of the Popular Front, Jamil Mazhar.