The IDF says operations in the eastern part of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip has resulted in the deaths of 50 gunmen, while 150,000 Palestinians have evacuated the area. The military operation, which was launched on Monday, has also led to the discovery of 10 tunnel shafts, which are currently being prepared for demolition.

In a separate incident, three soldiers were moderately wounded in a blast in a booby-trapped tunnel shaft in the Rafah area. The troops were taken to a hospital for treatment.

The IDF also launched a new pinpoint raid in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, with the aim of dismantling terror infrastructure and eliminating terrorists in the area. The operation is being carried out by the 99th Division, with troops from the Nahal, Yiftah, and Carmeli brigades entering the suburb to clear it of Hamas infrastructure.

Prior to their entry, the Israeli Air Force struck 25 sites in the area, including buildings used by terror groups, attack tunnels, observation posts, sniper positions, and other infrastructure.

The military first operated in Zeitoun at the start of Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza last year, and launched another two-week-long raid in the neighborhood in late February.

The latest raid came after the IDF identified Hamas regrouping in the area. The commander of Hamas’s naval forces in Gaza City, Ahmed Ali, was also killed in a recent airstrike. According to the military, Ali was involved in managing various projects for Hamas’s naval forces and advancing attacks against Israel and troops amid the ongoing war.

In southern Gaza, the IDF said that Israel had reopened the Kerem Shalom Crossing after days of closure, with COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, sharing a video on social media showing trucks filled with humanitarian aid crossing into the Strip. However, the United Nations claimed that no humanitarian aid had arrived in Gaza and that there was no one to receive the trucks on the other side of the crossing, after workers fled on Tuesday when the IDF took over the Palestinian side of the Rafah Crossing with Egypt.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)