IDF intensifies operations in Gaza and Lebanon, kills hundreds of Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists
From October 2023 – this August, the IDF invaded multiple parts of Gaza and successfully took apart all of Hamas’s 24 battalions.
From mid-September of this year until mid-October last month, the IDF ripped apart Hezbollah’s top three levels of commander, including its chief Hassan Nasrallah, destroyed approximately 70% of its long-range and most threatening rockets, and thoroughly cleared out all Hezbollah forces from southern Lebanon.
What has happened in the war since then?
In Gaza, since early October, the IDF has been in an on-and-off, more intense fight with Hamas in Jabalya.
On Tuesday, the IDF said it had killed 1,300 Hamas fighters there in the last approximately six weeks.
Although this would be a low number in terms of progress compared to the early months of the war, when the IDF sometimes killed several thousand Hamas terrorists in one month, it is far more than the IDF has killed over an average six weeks since February of this year, when the war largely slowed down (with an exception for a week in March at Shifa Hospital and five weeks in May-June in Rafah.)
IDF targets Hezbollah in Lebanon
IDF Division 99 continues with smaller skirmishes in central Gaza, and the Gaza Division continues with occasional smaller fights in Rafah.
Over the last week, the IDF has struck 150 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including 60 in Dahiya, Hezbollah’s top organizational area in Beirut, and 11 attacks in that area since Sunday of this week.
Since the start of the September 30 invasion, the IDF has killed around 1,500 Hezbollah fighters and many more in air strikes before that in September, as well as several hundred in the 11 months before that.
IDF Divisions 98 and 36 are penetrating deeper into Lebanon, in some cases even five kilometers from the border, to target larger Hezbollah bases and forces that have not yet been dealt with.
IDF Divisions 91 and 146 are still mopping up Hezbollah weapons and storage areas closer to the Israeli border, with less need for ongoing fighting.
On defense, the IDF has shot down 22 out of 27 drones launched against Israel since Thursday of last week. Unfortunately, some of the drones that have hit have caused deaths and serious injuries. The IDF has also shot down most of the 400 rockets fired on it recently by Hezbollah but again has suffered very significant injuries both this week in Shafaram and Ramat Gan as well as last week in Nahariya and elsewhere on two consecutive days.
Last week, there were also six killed IDF soldiers and four wounded in one single incident, and IDF soldiers are unfortunately expected to continue to be wounded or killed on a somewhat rolling basis as the invasion of southern Lebanon progresses.
