The IDF reported a major operation targeting underground terror networks in the southern Gaza Strip, resulting in the elimination of several Hamas operatives, including two directly linked to the October 7 attack on Israel. This extensive campaign, led by the Southern Gaza Brigade alongside the Desert Reconnaissance Battalion, aimed to dismantle both surface-level and subterranean terrorist infrastructure.

The operation began with airstrikes by the IAF, which were directed at anti-tank positions, booby-trapped structures, and surveillance installations threatening IDF troops. During the ground operation, forces uncovered and destroyed two interconnected attack tunnels stretching over two kilometers and containing approximately twenty booby-trapped exit points and hidden weapons caches.

IDF troops engaged several terrorists, some of whom emerged from the tunnel network during the operation. Among the neutralized targets were Baha Abu Qarshin, commander of Hamas’s Shabura Battalion Nukhba force, and Muhammad Ibrahim Sateri, both implicated in the October 7 massacre.