Israel razes Gaza neighborhood overlooking Sderot

Tel Aviv [Israel], January 5 (ANI/TPS): Israeli forces in the northern Gaza area of Beit Hanoun demolished a neighbourhood overlooking Israeli territory used by Hamas commanders as a hideout and command center, the Israel Defense Forces said on Saturday.
High rises in the "Officers' Neighborhood" of Beit Hanoun overlooked the nearby Israeli city of Sderot. The neighbourhood contained rocket launching sites, anti-tank firing positions, booby traps, shafts and numerous explosives, the IDF said.
Israel has been fighting Hamas's efforts to regroup in northern Gaza.
Also on Saturday, Israeli forces targeted Hamas terrorists exploiting Gaza's Salah ad-Din Highway. The 45 km road runs the length of the Strip from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to the Erez Crossing in northern Gaza and is a primary route for humanitarian aid deliveries.
According to the IDF, the attack on Hamas took place far from the movement of trucks without affecting the continuity of aid.
Separately, Israeli aircraft targeted a vehicle in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza carrying four armed Hamas terrorists.
The IDF also said on Saturday that soldiers in the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit located and dismantled an underground tunnel route containing a Hamas weapons manufacturing site in central Gaza.
The complex contained several lathes, as well as processing and cutting machines used, among other things, for the production of weapons. Military equipment was also seized.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas's attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014. (ANI/TPS)