On 1 December 2023, the Israel Defense Forces launched air raid operations on the city of Khan Yunis, with Israeli Air Force fighter jets striking over 50 targets in the area.[23] These air raids and artillery strikes continued for the next few days in large numbers.[24]
On 3 December, Israeli forces announced the expansion of the ground invasion to the south of Gaza using ground and armored forces.[25] On the same day, Hamas announced that it had targeted Israeli troops and armored vehicles with mortar shells and Yassin rocket-propelled grenades.
On 5 December, the Israeli forces claimed that their troops had reached the center of Khan Yunis. They stated that this was the most intense day of battles since the start of ground operations, in terms of Hamas fighters killed, the number of engagements and the use of fire from the ground and the air.[26]
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad published a video showing militants confronting Israeli forces penetrating east of the city.[citation needed] Also, Hamas announced that they have counted the total or partial destruction of 24 military vehicles in Khan Yunis. They also stated that they eliminated 8 Israeli troops with sniper attacks and that they successfully demolished a building housing Israeli troops with a barrel bomb and TBG explosives, causing the complete collapse of the building.[citation needed]
On 10 December, the IDF announced that 6 IDF soldiers had been killed whilst fighting in Khan Yunis.[27]
On 18 December, IDF announced that the Duvdevan Unit and the Oketz Unit had destroyed multiple tunnels and a drone factory during advances in Khan Yunis while seven IDF soldiers were killed. The destruction of rocket launchers aimed at Israel degraded the ability of Hamas to launch rocket strikes on Israel.[28] It was reported that Hamas was transferring forces from across Gaza Strip to reinforce the Khan Yunis Brigade which the IDF estimates would take months to destroy. [29]
On 19 December, al-Qassam Brigades announced that they had detonated a rigged house when Israeli forces entered the building and also announced a separate incident where they trapped Israeli forces in a house and detonated anti-personnel charges and thermobaric shells. The al-Qassam Brigades claimed both attacks killed and wounded Israeli forces but without evidence to support their claims. IDF forces were reinforced by an additional brigade and engineering force.[30]
On 23 December, the al Qassem Brigades claimed that they lured five Israeli SOF engineers into a tunnel rigged with explosive at the east of Khan Yunis, and that they killed all of the five engineers.[31]
January 2024
On 4 January 2024, the IDF claimed to have significantly degraded the command and control of Hamas's Khan Yunis Brigade's northern and eastern battalions with the destruction of tunnel systems, infrastructure and deaths of company commanders. The IDF's 4th Brigade attacked the southern flank of Hamas's Khan Yunis Brigade as the IDF surrounded the city. In turn, Hamas’ naval special operations forces reinforced Palestinian fighters in Khan Yunis via tunnel systems while the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the National Resistance Brigades and the al-Quds Brigades fought the IDF in different areas of the city.[32]
On 12 January, the IDF announced that airstrikes directed by the IDF 98th Division killed a commander in Hamas Nukhba Forces and six other Hamas fighter with the commander participating in October 7 attacks on Israel. IDF also destroyed weapon caches found in the area. The al Quds Brigades attacked an Israeli bulldozer in Khan Younis City while firing mortars against Israeli forces in central Khan Younis together with al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. [33]
On 21 January, Israeli forces discovered an underground tunnel in a civilian area of Khan Younis which contained five prison cells where Hamas is believed to have kept the hostages. IDF published children's drawings as proof the hostages had been held there.[34]
On 24 January 2024, twenty-one Israeli soldiers were killed in an explosion and subsequent building collapse in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, making it the deadliest day for the Israel Defense Forces since the ground invasion began.[35]
February 2024
On 1 February, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited Khan Younis and announced that all Hamas battalions in Khan Younis have been dismantled but the IDF had not yet claimed operational control over the area.[36]
On 15 February, IDF raided the Nasser Hospital, alleging that Hamas was holding Israeli hostages at the facility and it possibly contained bodies of some dead hostages. The IDF arrested dozens of people it alleged to be militants.[37]
On 18 February. IDF reported that Hamas's Khan Younis Brigade does not exist as a military entity anymore but other Hamas-aligned militias continued attacks against the IDF.[38]
On 19 February, IDF reported that clearing operation in western Khan Younis are being finished with Israeli forces carrying out airstrikes to eliminate Hamas units trying to advance towards Khan Younis. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed attacks with IEDs and RPGs against Israeli forces near Nasser Hospital. Hamas reported its fighters had returned from fighting areas in western Khan Younis after targetting 15 Israeli soldiers in a house.[39]
On 6 April, four Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush in Khan Yunis.[41] Two days later, the Qassam Brigades military media published the operation, which they had named the “Ambush of the Righteous”, depicting a complex and meticulously planned attack with several phases. [42]
On 7 April, all Israeli forces withdrew from Khan Yunis.[5] In an announcement the same day, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed that Hamas forces has ceased to exist as a military force in Khan Younis and stated the withdrawal was in preparation for the planned Rafah offensive.[43] However, rockets were fired by Palestinian forces in Khan Younis immediately after the IDF's withdrawal.[44] White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby claimed it was a “rest and refit” rather than a preparation for a offensive.[45] According to the Institute for the Study of War, citing unspecified sources within the IDF, IDF hoped the withdrawal would allow displaced Palestinians in Rafah to migrate to parts of Khan Younis and the central Gaza Strip which would facilitate an Israeli clearing operation into Rafah.[46]
Aftermath
Following the withdrawal of Israeli forces, the Palestinian Civil Defence accessed the city, so far had been able to extract 280 bodies. [47] They have estimated that about 8,000 civilians lie under the rubble in Khan Yunis. Later the Palestinian civil defense crew discovered a mass grave near the Nasser Medical Complex and recovered over 310 bodies so far.[48]
Khan Yunis, also spelled Khan Younis or Khan Yunus, is a city in the southern Gaza Strip; it is the capital of the Khan Yunis Governorate in the Gaza Strip.
This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2004.
This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2005.
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, named after Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, is the military wing of the Palestinian organization Hamas. Currently led by Mohammed Deif, IQB is the largest and best-equipped militant group operating within Gaza today.
The 2010 Gaza clashes were military clashes in the Gaza Strip between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups that occurred in March 2010.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is a coalition of Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank. The organization has been designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States.
Yahya Sinwar, also spelled Yehya Sinwar, is a Palestinian politician who has been leader of Hamas, the Sunni Islamist political and military organization that rules the Gaza Strip, since 2017.
The year 2023 in Israel was defined first by wide-scale protests against a proposed judicial reform, and then by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, which led to a war and to Israel invading the Gaza Strip.
Events in 2023 in the Palestinian territories.
An armed conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups has been taking place chiefly in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023. Clashes have also occurred in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and with Hezbollah along the Israel–Lebanon–Golan Heights border. The fifth war of the Gaza–Israel conflict since 2008, it is part of the broader Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and the most significant military engagement in the region since the Yom Kippur War 50 years earlier.
On 27 October 2023, Israel launched an invasion of the Gaza Strip with the stated goals to destroy Hamas, a military and political movement that led an attack on Israel earlier in the month, and to free hostages it took. The effort is ongoing. Before the invasion, dubbed Operation Swords of Iron, Israel declared war, tightened its blockade, and ordered the evacuation of the northern Gaza Strip.
The siege of Gaza City began on 2 November 2023, when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) surrounded Gaza City, amid the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, which was a counterattack to the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Gaza City is the most populated city in the Gaza Strip and the battle started on 30 October 2023, when Israel and Hamas clashed in Gaza City. According to Oxfam, there are about 500,000 Palestinians, along with 200 Israelis and other captives, currently trapped in a "siege within a siege" in northern Gaza.
Events of the year 2024 in Israel.
The following is a list of events during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2024.
Israeli forces damaged or destroyed at least 16 cemeteries in the Gaza Strip during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war in various places in Gaza within Palestine, as determined by evidence gathered by CNN, the New York Times and Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
The Battle of Hamad was a two–week Israeli military operation against Hamas forces in the town of Hamad in Gaza Strip.
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Israel 
Palestinian Civil Police Force 
37 soldiers killed
Unknown
