JERUSALEM: Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants and destroyed tunnels and other infrastructure in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, as they tried to suppress small rebel units that continued to attack the army with mortar fire, the army said on Friday.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday that the army had killed nearly 100 Palestinian fighters since the Israeli army launched its latest operation in Khan Younis, as pressure grew for a deal to end the fighting.
It said seven small units firing mortars at the army were killed in airstrikes, while four militants were also killed in airstrikes in Rafah in the south.
The Islamic Jihad armed wing said the rockets hit the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and other Israeli cities near Gaza. The Israeli Ambulance Service reported no casualties.
The fighting, which has continued for more than nine months since Israel's assault on Gaza began after the Oct. 7 attack, underscored the difficulty the IDF has had in dislodging fighters who have returned to the rubble of the coastal strip as a form of guerrilla warfare.
A Telegram channel run by the armed wing of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Gaza's two main militant groups, said militants were engaged in heavy fighting with Israeli forces east of Khan Yunis, using machine guns, mortars and anti-tank weapons.
At least six Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in eastern Khan Yunis, medics said.
American pressure
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president, both urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a proposed ceasefire agreement as soon as possible.
However, there has been no clear sign of talks to end the fighting and repatriate some 115 Israeli and foreign hostages still held in Gaza. Public statements from Israel and Hamas indicate that there are serious differences between the two sides.
Local residents contacted via the Messenger app said Israeli tanks had pushed into three towns east of Khan Yunis, Bani Suhaila, al-Janna and al-Karara, blowing up several houses in some residential districts.
The military said air force jets hit about 45 targets, including tunnels and two launch pads from which rockets were fired at Beersheba in southern Israel.
While fighting continued in the north of the enclave around Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, Israeli tanks pushed into the Tel al-Hawa suburb west of Gaza City, residents said.
The Hamas Telegram channel said fighters targeted an Israeli tank and shot an Israeli soldier in Tal al-Hawa.
Two Palestinians were also killed in an airstrike in western Gaza City, doctors said.
More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting in Gaza, according to local health officials who do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Israeli officials estimate that about 14,000 fighters from militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been killed or captured, up from a figure they estimated at more than 25,000 at the start of the war.
