Israel-Hamas War day 269: What is going on in Gaza and Lebanon?

Sergeant-Major (Res.) Yehuda Geto, 22, from Pardess Hanna, an operational military driver, fell during operational activity in the area of the Menashe Regional Brigade. 

He was killed by an explosive device in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm. The device was reportedly homemade and carried dozens of kilograms of explosive material.

The Commando Division brigade teams, Brigade 401, and the Yahalom Unit, under the command of Division 162, raided a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) outpost and an underground production site in the Tel-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, directed by the Intelligence Directorate, the IDF announced Monday evening.

The IDF teams located the largest underground site in the Gaza Strip for the production of rocket parts and long-range rockets by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

With two new incidents confirmed along with an original incident from last week in which IDF soldiers have tied Palestinian detainees to jeep hoods, it is unclear whether the military has gotten a full hold on the issue.

Sergeant-Major (Res.) Yehuda Geto, 22, from Pardess Hanna, an operational military driver, fell during operational activity in the area of the Menashe Regional Brigade. 

Hamas managed to fire 20 rockets from Khan Yunis into Israel for the first time in months on Monday, as the IDF was trying to wrap up the larger and more intense fighting stage of the war.

In Shejaia in northern Gaza, the IDF continued a second invasion of the area, which it started this past Friday, having taken control of the area back in January but then leaving it shortly after.

IN THE West Bank, a military vehicle drove over an explosive device in the Nur Shams camp in the Palestinian city of Tulkarm.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted that the IDF was close to eliminating Hamas’s military wing as the United States warned against a vacuum in the enclave, explaining that chaos is not an option.

Netanyahu spoke as the intense phase of fighting in Rafah was nearing its completion, but a deal that would see the release of the remaining 120 hostages in Gaza remained elusive.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claimed on Monday that 37,900 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants and has been criticized numerous times for distorting casualty figures. 

IDF troops of the 98th Division operated in the area of Shejaia in the Gaza Strip and eliminated numerous terrorists in close-quarters combat, the military said on Monday. 

In addition, troops carried out raids in which they found many weapons. 

The military also noted that the Israel Air Force (IAF) struck many targets, eliminating about 20 terrorists and demolishing manufacturing facilities and warehouses. 

The Shin Bet and the IDF have released 50 Gaza detainees, including the director of Shifa Hospital Muhammad Abu Salmiya, who has been in administrative detention in Israel since November 23.

Although Hamas was using Shifa Hospital as a terror base and to conceal hostages, there was never any concrete proof publicly produced that Abu Salmiya was directly involved in this.

Abu Salmiya's questioning

Back in November, a senior IDF source told The Jerusalem Post that Abu Salmiya had given suspicious answers when questioned about what he knew about Hamas’s systematic usage of his hospital, but suspicious answers without evidence cannot usually be used to hold someone in administrative detention for more than seven months.

In a flurry of activity, Iranian state media websites have sought to highlight Hezbollah’s increasing capabilities. This comes in the context of the escalating tensions with Israel.

The message is clear. Iran wants Israel and the region to believe Hezbollah is strong and ready for a possible future war.