This infographic released by the IDF on December 20, 2023, shows the map of a major Hamas tunnel underneath Palestine Square in Gaza City. (Israel Defense Forces.)
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the military has further expanded operations in southern Gaza, especially against Hamas’s underground infrastructure.
“Upon their entry into new Hamas strongholds, troops are engaged in heavy battles,” Hagari says.
In the Khan Younis area, Hagari says, the IDF is working “very heavily” against the Palestinian terror group’s tunnels. “We’ve expanded combat engineering forces there… and we will expand the [99th] Division’s abilities [further] in the coming days,” he says.
He says that so far, ground forces have destroyed or seized some 30,000 explosives, including anti-tank missiles and RPGs, across the Gaza Strip.
In the area of the Gaza City neighborhoods of Daraj and Tuffah, Hagari says troops found a cache of weapons in a school, including many explosive devices, rockets and “strategic” capabilities belonging to Hamas’s naval forces, which he says could have been used against Israeli Navy vessels.