The Israeli occupation continues its military operations in a normal manner and with different plans from one area to another inside the Gaza Strip, despite its preoccupation with the Lebanese front on the one hand, even if it is much less intense than it was before the ceasefire, as well as the new front represented by Syria after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Since the Israeli military forces entered the northern Gaza Strip, more than two months ago, they have been seeking with all their might to destroy as many homes, buildings and infrastructure as possible, including hospitals, health clinics and schools that have been turned into shelters since the beginning of the ongoing war in the Strip.

Isolation of the northern sector

These forces, as field sources confirm to Asharq Al-Awsat, are mainly focusing on keeping the northern Gaza Strip a disaster area that is unfit for life, with the aim of forcing its residents not to aspire to return to it through the systematic policy of destruction that they are following.

The sources explained that the Israeli goal of the ongoing operations in the northern Gaza Strip is to eliminate the remaining cells of the Palestinian resistance, especially since many of the militants and field leaders in the factions remained there fighting, and many of them were eliminated, but the pockets of resistance are still continuing, and the evidence of that is the killing of 3 Israeli soldiers in an operation that took place behind the communications building west of Jabalia camp, on Monday morning.

Israel seeks to turn the northern Gaza Strip into a buffer zone, and has also tried to destroy Hamas’s capabilities, in an attempt to try a scenario that it has planned several times and failed to achieve, which is to form armed groups from clans to undertake the distribution of humanitarian aid on the one hand, and impose local rule on the other hand, which Hamas has confronted, and has killed many of those who have tried to cooperate with Israel in this regard.

Palestinian affairs specialist Diaa Hassan, a journalist from the northern Gaza Strip, says that the Israeli occupation forces have forcibly displaced residents during the ongoing operation, and are still targeting those who remained inside their homes, causing dozens of victims in successive massacres, the latest of which was targeting a home housing the displaced Kahlout family in Beit Hanoun, which led to the killing of 25 of its members.

He pointed out that the occupation deliberately targets civilians primarily to put more pressure on Hamas and the factions to accept the current reality, to force them to raise the white flag, and achieve a truce in which Israel recovers its prisoners without stopping the war completely.

Targeting activists

It is noticeable from the continuous targeting throughout the Gaza Strip, whether it is targeting homes, residential apartments, groups of citizens, or even the tents of the displaced, that it targets resistance fighters and their families, and sometimes there is no one to pursue, so a number of their relatives are killed, with a greater focus on those who participated in the attack of October 7, 2023, or those who participated in operations against Israeli forces during the operations taking place inside the Strip.

Israel focused mainly on targeting field leaders from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Field sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the frequency of Israeli attacks and targeting has prompted many field leaders and activists to move from one place to another, which has made them exposed to the occupation’s intelligence services, which were monitoring them through collaborators or through electronic tracking.

Sources reveal that the "resistance security" has executed several "collaborators" with the Israeli occupation in recent days after investigating them and verifying their involvement in the assassination of resistance fighters.

"The Ghost"

The Israeli security establishment accuses Izz al-Din al-Haddad, a member of the military council of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, and the commander of the Gaza City Brigade, who is believed to have also become the commander of the northern Gaza Brigade, after the assassination of Ahmed al-Ghandour, the former commander of the brigade during this war, and some of the brigade’s leaders, of being the one behind the brigades’ partial restoration of its capabilities in the northern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation quoted these sources in a report published on Monday evening, saying that Haddad is the person responsible for restoring Hamas’s infrastructure in Jabalia, which led to the start of the military operation in the northern Gaza Strip during the past month and a half. He was also able to restore the capabilities of the military wing and is leading the “guerrilla warfare” line in that area.

The Hebrew channel described Al-Haddad as a "ghost" after his assassination failed several times.

Sources from within Hamas told Asharq Al-Awsat that Israel tried to assassinate or arrest Al-Haddad from one of the tunnels in the Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood after it had entered that area suddenly several months ago, but he escaped with great skill. He was also subjected to assassination attempts by air strikes in various areas.

The sources indicated that Al-Haddad was the one who threatened the clans that if they cooperated with Israel, they would be pursued with all force, which thwarted Israeli plans in this regard. He is also the one who stands directly behind managing military plans to fight against the occupation forces by forming active groups that move from one place to another. He is effectively credited within the “Al-Qassam Brigades” as having led the production line for the “Al-Yassin 105” shells, before the war in preparation for the attack of October 7, 2023.

South Gaza Strip

The situation is not much different in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where Israel aims, through its ongoing operations there since May 2024, to destroy the tunnels mainly inside the city and on its borders near the Philadelphi Corridor.

According to field sources who spoke to our correspondent, Israel has expanded its operations in Rafah to include areas near the city’s beach with the aim of preventing the construction of any tunnels near the water in order to deprive Hamas of the ability to smuggle any goods through it using small ships that it used before the war primarily for arms smuggling operations.

According to the same sources, it is noted that the Israeli forces have established military towers and installed communication devices and modern cameras along the border strip in the Philadelphia area with the aim of controlling it even after the war on Gaza.

Sources say that Israel is trying to keep the area surrounding the Philadelphi Corridor free of any homes or anything else in order to keep it a buffer zone that no one is allowed to approach and which also aims to prevent the digging of tunnels in the future and the smuggling of any weapons.

Other areas

Israeli operations in other areas such as Khan Yunis and the camps in the middle of the Strip, and even in Gaza City, which Israel classifies as part of the northern Gaza Strip, are currently limited to aerial bombardment and limited ground advances in certain areas such as parts of the neighborhoods of Zeitoun, Sabra, and Tal al-Hawa, which are close to the Netzarim axis, in addition to areas north of the Nuseirat camp, which are close to the axis from its southern side.

The residents of the Gaza Strip hope that a ceasefire agreement will be reached in the coming period, especially in light of the Israeli threat to carry out new operations in other areas of the Gaza Strip, such as the central camps, which are witnessing the advance and retreat of Israeli mechanisms.