IDF Division 98 on Tuesday killed dozens of Hamas terrorists in Jabalya in northern Gaza in the largest Gaza battle since mid-March and the largest battle in Jabalya itself since January.
Although the IDF started its reinvasion of Jabalya over Saturday-Sunday, only on Tuesday did the military finally find and confront larger quantities of Hamas’s reconstituted forces in that northern Gaza area.
Until Tuesday, fights in Jabalya since January had only involved IDF altercations with smaller terror cells, often of only a handful of Hamas fighters at a time.
The last large fight anywhere in the Strip was during a reinvasion of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in mid-March. That reinvasion lasted between one to two weeks, depending on how one categorizes different stages of the fighting.
Questions raised over evacuation of northern Gaza
Until now, it has been unclear why the IDF evacuated 100,000-150,000, between one-third to one-half of the remaining northern Gaza civilian population, for a new large operation in Jabalya, given that the last few days have involved relatively minor altercations.
But multiple defense sources have assured the Jerusalem Post that Tuesday’s fights are more of an indication of a more significant volume of Hamas terrorists reconstituting themselves in Jabalya.
In addition, IDF Division 162 continued smaller battles in Rafah, and IDF Division 99 continued smaller battles in Zeitoun, killing lower numbers of Hamas fighters.
The IDF still has not broadened its operations in Rafah beyond portions of the eastern area, though the Post has been told by Israeli defense sources that such a broadening operation could come soon and US sources have told CNN that the massing of additional IDF forces appears ready to broaden the Rafah operation.
In the face of US threats to halt the transfer of large American bombs, one move Israel may make is to invade Rafah without using as much airpower.
This could expose IDF ground forces to greater dangers, but those forces would still be able to use tanks and artillery to overpower Hamas’s four Rafah battalions.
Israel’s air force has not powered down completely, with the IDF saying on Tuesday that it carried out over 100 airstrikes throughout the Strip over Monday-Tuesday.
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