Gaza/Tel Aviv, 8 December 2023 (dpa/MIA) — The Israeli army has continued its bombardment of targets in the Gaza Strip, with around 450 targets been attacked on the ground, by air and from the sea over the course of the previous day, the army announced on Friday morning.

Troops are continuing to identify and destroy tunnel shafts, weapons and other terrorist infrastructure, it said. During the night, naval and intelligence capabilities of the Islamist Hamas were also hit with precision ammunition from the sea, it added.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, which is considered a Hamas stronghold under its leader in Gaza Yehya al-Sinwar, militants were hit from the air with precision strikes, the army said. The targeted air force strikes lasted for two hours.

It is only "a matter of time" before al-Sinwar is found, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday evening after the army surrounded al-Sinwar's house.

Experts suspect that al-Sinwar and his leadership are holed up in an extensive network of tunnels under Gaza. Many of the 138 hostages still being held are also believed to be there.

Al-Sinwar, together with Mohammed Deif, commander of the armed wing of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, is regarded as the planner of the unprecedented massacre in Israel on October 7, as a result of which around 1,200 Israelis were killed and around 240 people were abducted to the Gaza Strip.

Israel's army has vowed to track down both men.

In Israel's retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip, the number of Palestinian deaths has reached at least 17,177, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry said on Thursday, adding that another 46,000 people have been injured.