Sirens sounded in Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Monday morning as Israeli forces continued to hit Hamas terror targets in the Strip.
Three Hamas company commanders were killed by Israeli airstrikes over the past 24 hours, in targeted strikes based on intelligence.
Another strike eliminated a terrorist cell and hit a weapons depot they were hiding in after IDF troops identified the cell entering the building.
“IDF troops continue to operate in the Gaza Strip, directing aircraft to strike terrorists, terrorist infrastructure and locating weapons and military equipment,” the army said.
On the northern front, Israeli forces attacked Hezbollah targets in Lebanese territory on Sunday night in response to launches from the Iran-backed terror group.
A Hezbollah military compound, a military position and terror infrastructure were targeted in the strikes.
While Israeli forces have been encountering winter rains in the Gaza Strip in recent days, snow was reported in the north of Israel on Monday morning.
The IDF released for publication on Monday morning the names of two more Israeli casualties in Gaza.
Sgt. Dvir Barazani, 20, from Jerusalem, and Sgt. Yinon Tamir, 20, from Pardes Hana-Karkur, both of the 890th Battalion, Paratroopers Brigade, were killed during operational activity in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the IDF.
At least 71 soldiers have been killed in action in Gaza, at the Lebanon border and in Judea and Samaria since the start of the Gaza ground operation on Oct. 27; 387 Israeli soldiers have died since the war started on Oct. 7.
On that day, thousands of Hamas terrorists penetrated the Gaza border and invaded the northwestern Negev, murdering 1,200 Israelis, wounding over 5,000 and taking some 240 people back to Gaza as hostages.
Israel and Hamas have both rejected a Jordanian newspaper report that a ceasefire would begin on Monday, accompanied with the release of some hostages, The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday morning.
The al-Ghad newspaper reported that a five-day ceasefire would start at 11 a.m. on Monday and that 50 hostages would be released in exchange for an equal number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
“There is nothing as of now,” an Israeli source said, according to the Post.
“There is no truth to what the media reported, attributed to sources in Hamas, regarding an exchange deal starting today,” said Izzat al-Risheq, a senior member of Hamas, according to the report.
The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Israel and Hamas are close to a U.S.-brokered agreement that would see dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza freed in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting.
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