
10 January 2009
Summary of Today’s Events
IDF forces, the Infantry Corps, Armored Corps, Combat Engineering Corps, Artillery Coprs, and Intelligence Corps, continue operating throughout the Gaza Strip with support from the Israel Air Force and the Israel Navy.
IDF forces operating in the northern Gaza Strip struck a number of armed Hamas operatives, including a would-be suicide bomber strapped with an explosive belt. Ground troops aided IAF aircraft identifying the location of several rocket launching squads and terror cells planting roadside bombs.
The IAF struck over 60 targets since the morning, including:
- Two rocket launching squads near Jabaliya, shortly after they fired rockets towards the Ashdod region
- Ten launching sites, several of which were hidden underground
- Seven weapons smuggling tunnels
- An anti-aircraft missile launcher
- Approximately ten weapons storage and weapons manufacturing facilities
- Two vehicles used to store and transport weaponry
- Three Hamas outposts
In addition to this, Amir Mansi, the commander of the Hamas rocket launching program in the Gaza City area, was killed today by IDF fire in cooperation with the ISA. Mansi was the leading Hamas authority on the long range Grad missile launching program.
Seven soldiers were lightly wounded in separate incidents.
The IDF will continue to operate against the Hamas terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip according to its operational plans in order to reduce the rocket fire on the south of Israel.
