Officials said the evacuation should take place after conducting a proper “scan of the territory” to ensure there are no militants present.
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The Israeli military announced on Sunday that it would deploy tens of thousands of soldiers to fight Palestinian militants who have invaded Israel, with the goal of evacuating all Israelis living near the Gaza Strip within 24 hours.
“Our mission in the next 24 hours is to evacuate all residents living in the vicinity of Gaza,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters. He added that the fight to rescue him is still ongoing.
He said the evacuation should take place after a proper “territorial scan” to ensure that no militants were present.
“There are tens of thousands of combat soldiers in the region. They will reach every community until they kill all the Israeli terrorists,” Hagari said.
He said troops also fought overnight with insurgents in Kfar Azha, two kilometers east of the border with the Gaza Strip.
The military announced on Saturday that there were two locations where hostages were being held within a 20 km radius of the Gaza border.
Israeli media reported that hostages were freed in Beiri and Ofakim, but the military did not provide details when contacted by AFP.
Hagari said the military has so far attacked 500 Hamas targets, including the group’s “military infrastructure, the homes of commanders, and symbols of the Hamas regime.”
He said Israeli forces had captured the point where the militants entered Israel from the Gaza Strip.
“The military killed hundreds of terrorists on the ground,” he said, adding that dozens were taken prisoner.
Hagari said Hamas had committed “despicable war crimes.”
“Whoever took part in it, we will try to take revenge.”
