Tel Aviv, 25 February 2024 (dpa/MIA) – Israeli troops captured a number of Hamas fighters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza as they attempted to escape the city by concealing themselves among civilians, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported on Sunday.

In overnight operations, other armed men had been killed in the area, and weapons found, the IDF said.

An Israeli air attack had also eliminated a Hamas cell preparing a drone attack, it said.

The IDF had also carried out a major operation in the al-Zaytun part of Gaza City, finding a weapons cache and destroying a rocket launching site, according to the report, which could not be verified.

Palestinian sources reported a large number of civilian victims from the latest IDF operations. The state-run Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that three people had died in a bomb attack on a residential block in Sabra in Gaza City.

Dozens more, including women and children, had died in IDF artillery and air attacks in Khan Younis and in Gaza City, Wafa reported. These reports could also not be independently verified.

According to the Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip, more than 29,600 people have died so far in IDF operation in response to the October 7 attacks mounted by Hamas from the Gaza Strip,which killed around 1,200 people in Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he is to convene a cabinet meeting, possibly as early as Sunday,  to discuss an IDF offensive on Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. Around 1.5 million civilians are concentrated in the city, many of them living in tents.