After three Hamas operatives surrendered to troops of the Givati Brigade in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun earlier today, the IDF announced that Hamas's battalion in the town had been defeated.
The operatives had emerged from a tunnel and surrendered to the forces in the area. The IDF says the operatives told the troops that they had sought to flee the area, after another gunman with them was killed during a previous exchange of fire with the military, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
The Hamas gunmen also led the forces to a weapons depot near the tunnel from which they emerged, where the IDF says the troops found numerous weapons and equipment. Inside the tunnel, the troops also found food, water, and other supplies to be able to reside underground for long periods, the military says.
The IDF says the three operatives were taken for further interrogation, the weapons were seized, and combat engineers are mapping out the tunnel ahead of its demolition.
“The Beit Hanoun Battalion, which posed a threat to Nir Am and Sderot, has surrendered and been defeated by Givati Brigade troops,” the IDF says.
Last week, during a tour of Beit Hanoun, the commander of the Givati Brigade told reporters that there were just four or five remaining gunmen in the area.
The IDF has operated in Beit Hanoun five times since the beginning of the war, slowly degrading Hamas’s battalion there, which, before October 7, 2023, consisted of over 1,000 operatives.
The majority of the Hamas gunmen in the Beit Hanoun Battalion were either killed during the fighting or fled, like the battalion commander, Hussein Fayyad.
