The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intercepted two projectiles fired from central Gaza on December 11. The IDF did not specify if the threats were rockets or mortars, but Israeli defense systems are capable of intercepting various types of projectiles. No sirens sounded in Israel as the attack appeared to target an open area, and Israel’s alarm system is fine-tuned to avoid unnecessary public alerts.
The attack was small but illustrated the continued attempts by terrorist groups in central Gaza to threaten Israel. Hamas controls central Gaza and continues to operate in northern Gaza, the humanitarian zone of southern Gaza, and other areas. Central Gaza likely poses the largest challenge to Israel because Israeli forces have never cleared it. There have been some raids into this area but nothing like significant operations in places like Jabaliya, Khan Younis, or Rafah, where IDF divisions systematically sought to dismantle Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure.
Central Gaza consists of an area called the “Central Camps,” comprising four urban sections: Maghazi, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat, and Bureij. All are built up around refugee camps that date from the 1950s. Refugee camps often have been a center of political activism for Palestinians, and terror groups like Hamas recruit in them. Therefore, it is unsurprising that Hamas continues to operate with relative ease in these areas. It is unclear why the IDF has not operated more intensely in central Gaza, but the presence of 100 hostages that Hamas continues to hold may be one reason. Israel estimates that some of the hostages held in Gaza are deceased— however, it considers all those taken, dead and alive, hostages.
On December 11, the IDF said it eliminated a Hamas Nukhba company commander. The individual was accused of the attack on the Paga outpost on October 7, one of a number of fortified IDF positions along the Gaza border that were attacked by Hamas that day. Fourteen IDF soldiers were killed at the outpost on October 7, 2023.
“The IAF [Israeli Air Force], with the precise direction of the Intelligence Directorate and the ISA [Israel Security Agency], struck and eliminated the terrorist Fehmi Salmi, a Nukhba Company Commander in Hamas’ Zeitoun Battalion who was operating at the time of the strike from inside a structure that previously served as the Al-Falah school,” the IDF said.
The Hamas Zeitoun Battalion operates to the north of the Netzarim Corridor, an area the IDF controls. The IDF has targeted Zeitoun numerous times in the war and cleared the area of terrorists several times. As with other parts of Gaza, the terrorists appear to return each time unless the IDF presence remains. In another strike, the IDF said it eliminated Salah Dahham, “the head of Hamas’ Paragliding Unit, in the area of Jabaliya. On October 7th, Salah Dahham led Hamas’ aerial infiltration into communities in southern Israel, a key part of Hamas’ murderous attacks on civilians.”
In a third operation, the IDF said it killed 10 terrorists that it blamed for an anti-tank-fire attack on December 9 that killed three IDF soldiers and wounded 12 others in northern Gaza. The IDF has been operating in northern Gaza since early October. The two-month operation has been complex because there were approximately 70,000 civilians in Jabaliya when Israeli troops began to move into the area. The civilians were asked to evacuate south. The IDF estimates that there were several thousand terrorists among the civilians, and many of the terrorists have been killed or detained in the last two months. However, the fact that a cell of 10 terrorists was still in the area illustrates how Hamas clings to locales even in adverse circumstances.
