IDF reserves serving in a paratrooper division said they were seeing civilians attempting to return north to areas evacuated in the fighting, being pushed to do so, by Hamas. To stop the civilian flow, the soldiers used smoke bombs and at times had to resort to non-lethal firing, when the Palestinians attempted to progress.
The tunnel near the Israeli border
(IDF)
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Often hungry, children were given medical attention and rations to share with the soldiers who said they were showing the residents of the Strip courtesy the Israeli civilians did not receive from the terrorists who carried out their massacre on October 7.
The paratroopers who have been deployed in north and central Gaza since the start of the war were preparing to leave, only to join the fighting in the south, where Israel has been battling in Hamas strongholds around Khan Younis.
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646th Division uncovers rocket launcher production facilities in al-Bureij
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
The force from the 646th Division was given one of the complex tasks of holding territory in the north, holding a nine-kilometer (5.5 miles) line leading from Kibbutz Beeri on the border, across the Strip to the sea with positions along it, to prevent the return of Hamas and the establishment of a terrorist military presence there.
It is a main road for the rapid movement of unarmored vehicles, with two southward exits that act as checkpoints: the coastal axis and Salah al-Din road. These exits allow the IDF to conduct operations that expand the controlled area to the southern neighborhoods of Gaza and the outskirts of the central towns of al-Boreij and Nusairat.
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'A girl who emerged from a tunnel shaft received medical treatment'
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
The IDF believes that south of the corridor, the Gaza River is a relatively effective obstacle to passing between the north and the south of Gaza. However, the forces of the 646th Brigade were operating to locate and demolish strategic tunnels below the river as part of their mission to dismantle Hamas infrastructure above and underground.
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IDF led by Engineering Corps destroys Hamas terror tunnels
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
"We are winning and remaining human"
In recent days, the soldiers of the division, together with the Engineering Corps completed the destruction of another terrorist tunnel, one and a half kilometers from the border. The IDF Spokesperson said that the tunnel which connected between the north and the south was about a kilometer long and about 20 meters deep. "The underground route was investigated and destroyed, led by the Engineering Corps battalion," the military spokesperson said. During the operation, soldiers also located anti-aircraft missile caches and advanced rocket launchers, including unique electronic components for laptop remote activation of the launchers.
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Weapons and rockets were confiscated from rocket production facility
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
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Operational kilometer-long tunnel destroyed by 646th Division
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
According to IDF data, In total, the force killed at least 100 terrorists during their fighting in Gaza. "We're winning and remaining human. We had many cases in which Gazans approached our soldiers and received totally different treatment from what our citizens received from Hamas on October 7," the division soldiers said. "We gave Gazan children some of our food, we gave women blankets because of the cold, and a girl who emerged from a tunnel shaft received medical treatment from our teams."
The division estimates that the coming year will be complex and will include prolonged fighting. The goal was that the children of these reservists would not have to fight in Gaza in the next decade. As for the burden on the reservists, they are the same people who keep the economy going and pay taxes and are the ones who also continue to serve far from home, for months on end.