Acts of Terror Against Israelis

"[In addition to directing raids during the assault on southern Israel, Khawajiri] secured Hamas terrorist activity in the Shifa Hospital and was in command of Hamas's forces fighting against IDF soldiers in the Shati area."

"He was also responsible for carrying out numerous acts of terror against Israelis."

Israel Defense Forces statement

Representatives from different embassies stand among people fleeing from the Gaza Strip as they arrive in the Egyptian part of the Rafah border crossing with the Palestinian enclave, on Dec. 3, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. AFP via Getty Images

 

Calls were renewed in the Gaza Strip for mass evacuations from the southern town of Khan Younis, as the Israeli military continued to widen its ground offensive, with about 200 Hamas targets being targeted and struck. The IDF has turned its attention from Gaza's north toward the south, following Hamas movements and planning to target the terrorist group's infrastructure and operative presence in the south. The misfortune of displaced Gazan civilians is that having been instructed to leave the north and turn south, they are faced with a similar situation in reverse.

Throughout the Gaza Strip overnight Sunday, into Monday morning Arab and Israeli media reported ongoing attacks, including an operation in the southern Gaza Strip near Rafah and Khan Yunis while Shejaiya in the north long with the Tuffah neighbourhood east of Gaza City also come under attack. Anywhere and everywhere Hamas inserted itself and its weapons depots and rocket launchers among crowded civilian enclaves, there the attention of the IDF swivelled relentlessly.

Israel will not be dissuaded, its resolve to rid itself of the constant lethal menace of Hamas attacks is irreconcilable with any further truces that only serve to enable Hamas to regroup, restock and rest before once again gaining momentum to challenge the IDF's plan for the terror group's complete eradication. Only then will Gaza and the Palestinians who live there be able to eventually reconstruct themselves into a living semblance of civilizational norms and future peace and prosperity. In the meanwhile, rocket fire from Gaza into Israel continues.

In the followup to Hamas's unspeakable sadism in southern Israel on October 7, the response by the Israeli military in its intention to wipe out the terrorist group's functionality and membership has claimed collateral damage familiar in all wars, when civilian populations suffer, but this time with the addition of a population being exploited as a human shield whom Hamas has taught to relish the prospect of martyrdom for the Hamas cause of extirpating Israel and slaughtering Jews.

 

Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images  This picture taken from the southern Gaza Strip shows a rocket fired at Israel and smoke trails on Dec. 3, 2023.

Airstrikes and explosions were heard by nearby residents in and around Khan Yunis following leaflets being dropped by the IDF warning people to relocate further south. Terrorist infrastructure installed in a Beit Hanoun school used to attack Israeli forces was destroyed by the IDF Negev Brigade. In the process two tunnel shafts were discovered within the school complex, one of which included an area for cargo and weaponry.

Shati Battalion commander Haitham Khawajiri, a Hamas commander responsible in the October 7 massacre, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. On Sunday IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi noted that the IDF began its ground offensive in the southern section of the strip, north of the city of Khan Yunis. The military was expanding the ground offensive to "all areas" of the enclave, announced IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

 

Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images   This picture taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on Dec. 3, 2023, shows smoke billowing over the Palestinian enclave during Israeli bombardment amid continuing battles between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.

 

A map dividing southern Gaza into dozens of blocks was published for the purpose of "precise instructions" given to residents where they were best to evacuate to, with the IDF pursuing Hamas with "maximum force" both in the north and south, at the same time attempting to minimize civilian harm. Despite which some among the Palestinians ignored past evacuation orders, asserting they feel no safer elsewhere and plan to remain where they are, taking their chances. As far as Israel is concerned, their targets are the Hamas operatives, not the civilian population; civilian casualties that ensue are the responsibility of a terrorist group that elects deliberately to operate within residential neighbourhoods.

Aside from the warning leaflets dropped over Gaza, phone calls and radio and television broadcasts have also been used as means by which to urge people to leave specified areas due to come under bombardment. During the ceasefire that began on November 24, ending on December 1, a total of 84 Israeli children and women, along with 24 foreign nationals who were abducted were released by Hamas into the care of the International Red Cross, leaving 136 hostages still in the hands of the terrorists.

Palestinians survey the destruction caused by the Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images