The IDF announced on Sunday morning that IDF forces stationed in the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza were redeployed to Jabaliya in northern Gaza in the wake of intelligence information indicating that Hamas is regrouping and rearming in the northern Gaza Strip.

“The forces of the 162nd Division began operating overnight in the Jabaliya area following prior intelligence and after an ongoing situational assessment and the forces’ activities on the ground which indicated the presence of terrorists and terror infrastructures in the area, along with Hamas attempts to rebuild terror infrastructure in the region,” the IDF stated.

The forces focused massive fire on the area from two directions in the surprise raid, eliminating numerous terrorists. On Sunday, fighter jets also carried out a targeted airstrike on Hamas terrorists operating from a command center housed in a local school.

It is the fourth time that the IDF has invaded Jabaliya since the start of the war in Gaza. The IDF also began evacuating tens of thousands of Gazan civilians from Jabaliya on Sunday while Hamas terrorists pressured civilians to ignore the IDF warnings and stay in their homes.

According to military analysts, the IDF may be implementing a limited military siege of northern Gaza in order to weaken Hamas’s control over the area, a plan known as the “Eiland initiative.”

The Eiland initiative, presented last month by two retired IDF generals, Giora Eiland and Gershon HaCohen, consists of transferring civilians from northern Gaza to the south, ceasing the supply of food and other humanitarian aid to the north and imposing a military siege on the area, forcing the terrorists in Gaza City to surrender or die.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)