Israel struck over 300 Hamas targets and killed "numerous" terrorists in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, including a senior commander, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday morning.
Among the sites targeted were underground anti-tank missile and rocket launching positions and military compounds, according to the IDF.
Nasim Abu Ajina, commander of the Beit Lahia Battalion of Hamas's Northern Brigade, was killed in an Israeli air strike on Monday.
According to the IDF, Abu Ajina directed the Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians in Kibbutz Erez and Netiv Ha'asara. He previously commanded the Hamas Aerial Array and participated in the development of the terrorist organization's drones and paragliders.
"His elimination significantly harms the efforts of the Hamas terrorist organization to disrupt the IDF's ground activities," according to the Israeli military.
Israeli ground forces also engaged and destroyed terrorist cells, as well as providing real-time direction for airstrikes on Hamas forces and infrastructure.
Despite the IDF's ground operation in Gaza, rocket fire from the Strip was ongoing, triggering sirens in Israeli border communities multiple times overnight Monday and on Tuesday morning.
The military on Tuesday released a radio recording of the head of IDF Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, telling troops operating in Gaza that there can be "no result other than victory."
"Southern Command stations, commander is speaking. We are launching an attack on Hamas and the terror groups in the Gaza Strip. Our goal is one: victory. No matter how long the fighting takes, how difficult, there is no other result but victory," said Finkelman.
"We will fight professionally and powerfully in light of the IDF values we were raised on. Chief among them is sticking to the mission and striving for victory. We will fight in the alleys, we will fight in the tunnels, we will fight where necessary. We will strike the terrible enemy that stands before us," he continued.
"My brothers in arms, the residents of Be'eri, Sderot, Nir Oz, Kfar Aza, and the western Negev communities, and with them the entire nation of Israel, are all looking at us now. Like me, they also trust you and believe in you. You are the generation of victory," said Finkelman. "Get to your tasks, hit the enemy. Out."
Republished with permission from Jewish News Syndicate.