IDF Allows 6-Hour Safe Passage To Gazans; Hamas’ Air Force Chief Killed In Airstrike

Tel Aviv: A day after dropping pamphlets across northern Gaza asking densely populated region’s 1.1 million people to evacuate to the southern part of the besieged territory, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Saturday allowed allow passage to Gazans on two main roads in the southern territory for six hours.

“The Israeli Defence Force will allow safe movement for Gazans on two main roads south in the territory between 10 am to 4 pm (local time),” IDF Arabic language spokesman shared on X.

The military had earlier alleged that Hamas, which staged a shocking and brutal attack on Israel nearly a week ago, was stopping Gazans from evacuating the northern part of the enclave. The Hamas authority for refugee affairs told residents in the north of the territory to “remain steadfast in your homes and to stand firm in the face of this disgusting psychological war waged by the occupation”, The Guardian reported.

The IDF also claimed that Murad Abu Murad, a senior military commander of Hamas, who headed the Islamist group’s aerial operations in Gaza City, was killed in air strikes over the past days.  “Also, during the last day, fighter jets of the Air Force attacked the operational headquarters of the terrorist organization Hamas, from where the organization’s aerial activities were managed. During the attack, Murad Abu Murad, the head of the air formation in Gaza City who took a large part and directed terrorists in the murderous attack on Saturday, was killed,” the Israeli Air Force stated on X.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army has resumed artillery shelling from gunboats and tanks towards the eastern and western Gaza Strip. The ground forces have made “localised” raids in Gaza in the last 24 hours “to cleanse the area of terrorists and weaponry” and find “missing persons”.  The military also struck a Hezbollah target in southern Lebanon on Saturday morning in response to the “infiltration of unidentified aerial objects into Israel” and fire on an Israeli drone.

Since the beginning of the war on Saturday, October 7, over 1,300 people have been killed in Israel by Hamas, and more than 1,900 have lost their lives in Palestine’s Gaza and the West Bank. The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said early on Friday that more than 400,000 people had already fled their homes in the Gaza Strip and 23 aid workers had been killed since the start of Israeli retaliatory strikes.

TWO-PAGE ATTACK PLAN

A ‘top secret’ document allegedly prepared by Hamas and recovered from some of the bodies of slain terrorists by Israeli troops and first responders has revealed that it had a detailed plan ready to target elementary schools and a youth centre in the Israeli kibbutz of Kfar Sa’ad, and the plan involved killing “as many people as possible”, the Wion reported.

HEZBOLLAH ‘FULLY PREPARED’ FOR ACTION AGAINST ISRAEL

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said that it would be “fully prepared” to join its Palestinian ally Hamas in the war against Israel when the time is right. “We, as Hezbollah, are contributing to the confrontation and will (continue) to contribute to it within our vision and plan,” the group’s deputy chief was quoted as saying by AFP.

In a post on X, the Israel military on Saturday said: “IDF surveillance detected a short time ago, a terrorist cell that tried to infiltrate Israel from Lebanon. An IDF remotely piloted aircraft attacked the cell and eliminated several terrorists.”

OPERATION AJAY

The second batch of 235 Indian nationals landed in New Delhi on Saturday morning, under ‘Operation Ajay’. The first batch of 212 Indians, including an infant, were flown out amid the Israel-Hamas conflict and arrived in India on October 13. The operation will continue on Sunday as well.