The IDF ramped up military operations against Hamas on Monday, re-entering the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip, Khan Younis. This move comes three months after the army said it completed the intensive second phase of the war.
Supported by tanks and armored personnel carriers, the IDF's 98th Division launched a daytime raid, preceded by aerial and artillery bombardments.
IDF forces operating in Khan Younis
(Video: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
The operation began with evacuation warnings to the sparse population near the border with Israel and in Khan Younis. As IDF forces advanced, thousands of Gazans fled westward toward Al-Mawasi, reducing the available space in the designated humanitarian zone.
The elite division's raid is expected to expand in the coming days, potentially becoming the largest IDF operation in the third phase of the war, which could extend for years. The Khan Younis operation is projected to last for weeks, targeting Hamas strongholds, including command centers, control hubs, terrorist concentrations and weapons manufacturing facilities.
Given the targets are large terrorist infrastructure hubs, the IDF issued early warnings to tens of thousands who had returned to the ruins of Khan Younis and nearby tent cities.
As IDF forces entered the city, terrorists from Khan Younis fired several rockets that exploded in open fields in the Eshkol Regional Council. The city also hosts several Palestinian Islamic Jihad factions (PIJ), which launched a simultaneous barrage of 20 rockets at the western Negev last month.
In addition to renewed fighting in Khan Younis, operations in Rafah continue on a smaller scale, focusing on four neighborhoods that were Hamas strongholds. The IDF has recently reduced the number of 162nd Division forces in Rafah to two battalion combat teams, with rotations between the Givati and Nahal brigades every few days. The Southern Command has achieved operational control in most neighborhoods where ground forces operated, leading to changes in operational patterns based on specific intelligence.
The only sector where fighting persists, though waning, is the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood near the coast, captured by the 401st Armored Brigade in May. The IDF concluded the Nahal Brigade's activities in Rafah, including the elimination of dozens of gunmen attempting to seize humanitarian trucks, killing over 150 terrorists and seizing more than 400 weapons during four brigade-level operations in the past month. The brigade also uncovered and destroyed a large underground terrorist base in the Brazil neighborhood.
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Displaced Palestinians fleeing eastern Khan Younis as IDF forces approach
(Photo: Bashar TALEB / AFP)
The IDF maintains ground control at the Rafah crossing, which remains closed, and on the Philadelphi Corridor separating Gaza from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, persistently searching for smuggling tunnels.
Additionally, the 252nd Reserve Division recently took over the Netzarim Corridor from the 99th Division. Its forces are gradually deploying in new positions between the border near Kibbutz Be'eri and the coast south of Gaza City. Currently, four divisional headquarters are managing the fighting in Gaza.