The Israel Defense Forces defeated Hamas’s Beit Hanoun battalion, the military declared on Saturday, after three of the terror group’s operatives surrendered to troops of the Givati Brigade in the northern Gaza town.

The operatives emerged from a tunnel and surrendered to the forces in the area, the IDF said, adding that they told the troops they had sought to flee the area after another gunman with them was killed during a previous exchange of fire with the military.

The Hamas gunmen also led the forces to a weapons depot near the tunnel from which they emerged, where the IDF said the troops found numerous weapons and equipment.

The military stated that troops also discovered food, water, and other supplies inside the tunnel, suggesting it could be used for long-term underground residence.

The IDF said the three operatives were taken for further interrogation, the weapons were seized, and combat engineers are mapping out the tunnel ahead of its demolition.

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“The Beit Hanoun Battalion, which posed a threat to Nir Am and Sderot, has surrendered and been defeated by Givati Brigade troops,” the IDF said.

Defense Minister Israel Katz posted footage of the operatives surrendering on X. “Hamas terrorists are surrendering in Beit Hanoun. They are emerging from the burrows into the destroyed city,” he wrote. “The IDF is destroying both the above and the underground [infrastructure] to defend the city of Sderot.”

Hamas operatives surrender to IDF troops of the Givati Brigade in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun, August 2, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Last week, during a tour of Beit Hanoun, the commander of the Givati Brigade told reporters that there were just four or five remaining gunmen in the area.

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The IDF has operated in Beit Hanoun five times since the beginning of the war, slowly degrading Hamas’s battalion there, which, before October 7, 2023, consisted of over 1,000 operatives.

The majority of the Hamas gunmen in the Beit Hanoun Battalion were either killed during the fighting or fled, like the battalion commander, Hussein Fayyad.

The IDF’s declaration on Beit Hanoun followed a Channel 12 news report, which stated that Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir had pleaded with cabinet ministers this week to present a strategy for how they wanted the army to proceed amid the standstill in hostage talks.

Zamir reportedly emphasized that the government lacks a clear game plan, as Jerusalem’s diplomatic standing has plummeted due to the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

On Friday, Zamir told troops inside Gaza he estimates “that in the coming days we will know whether we will be able to reach a partial deal to release our hostages,” otherwise “the fighting will continue unabated.”

More deaths reported at aid sites

Israel has been facing growing global scrutiny over the amount of aid distributed to civilians in Gaza since a ceasefire with Hamas ended in March, amid reports of hunger in the enclave. Much of the criticism has focused on the hundreds of reported deaths at aid distribution sites run by the Israel-and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

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Hospitals in Gaza reported Saturday the killing of more than a dozen people, eight of them food-seekers, by Israeli fire as Palestinians endured severe risks in their search for food amid airdrops and restrictions on overland aid delivery.

Near a GHF distribution site, Yahia Youssef, who had come to seek aid, described to the Associated Press a panicked scene now grimly familiar.

After helping carry out three people wounded by gunshots, he said he looked around and saw many others lying on the ground, bleeding.

“It’s the same daily episode,” Youssef said.

In response to questions about several eyewitness accounts of violence at the northernmost of GHF’s four sites, the GHF media office said “nothing [happened] at or near our sites.”

Meanwhile, the IDF on Friday afternoon announced the largest airdrop operation since efforts to increase the supply of aid to Gaza began, with 126 packages of humanitarian supplies from six countries being dropped by aircraft in the coastal enclave.

Aircraft from Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and — for the first time in over a year — Spain, Germany, and France airdropped food in both northern and southern Gaza.

The IDF said the airdrops were carried out “in accordance with the directives from the political echelon and as part of the cooperation between Israel, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Spain, France, and Germany.”

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The airdrops are part of a “series of actions aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip,” the military said.

“The IDF will continue to work in order to improve the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip, along with the international community, while refuting the false claims of deliberate starvation in Gaza,” it added.

On Saturday, another 90 packages of aid were airdropped by Jordan, the UAE, Germany, and France in Gaza, the military said.

The war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251. Of the 50 hostages who remain in Gaza, the IDF has confirmed the deaths of 28.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 60,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

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Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 459. The toll includes two police officers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.

Open gallery view Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, during a visit to the Pentagon on Wednesday. Credit: Government Press Office

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Pentagon Wednesday, celebrating “the historic success of Operation Midnight Hammer” and Israel’s partnership with the U.S.

Hegseth praised U.S. servicemembers for the “perfect operation that brought a conclusion to the 12-Day War, delivering on President Trump’s vision of Peace Through Strength.”

The leaders discussed key security issues, including countering the Iranian threat and strengthening strategic ties, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Both officials expressed hope that Hamas would agree to the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal, with Hegseth reaffirming “the importance of the return of all hostages and ending the war in Gaza.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, also toured the Pentagon, including the 9/11 memorial.

WASHINGTON — The US is more optimistic than Egyptian and Qatari mediators about the chances that a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal can be reached this week, four sources familiar with the negotiations tell The Times of Israel.

US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff told reporters earlier Tuesday that he is hopeful a deal can be reached this week and that three of the four sticking points have been resolved over the past three days of proximity talks in Doha.

A source familiar with the matter said the three issues Witkoff suggested have been solved were Hamas’s demand for guarantees from the mediators that the ceasefire will remain in place even if talks on the terms of a permanent ceasefire have not wrapped up by the end of the 60-day truce under discussion; Hamas’s demand for aid to be surged into Gaza through UN-backed mechanisms; and terms of the hostage-prisoner swap.

The source notes that while progress was made on the first two issues, the identities of Israelis and Palestinians to be released in the deal have not yet been discussed by the negotiators in Doha, with Hamas insisting that other matters be resolved first.

However, the number and identities of those being released are not viewed to be as thorny an issue as the other ones, the source familiar says, speculating that this is why Witkoff grouped the hostage-prisoner swap component of the deal with the issues that have already been solved.

The remaining obstacle is the partial withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza during the length of the 60-day truce, a US official and the source familiar with the talks tell The Times of Israel. Israel is insisting that it remain in key corridors of southern Gaza, including the Morag Corridor, where it plans to create a “humanitarian city” to which the Strip’s entire population will be herded and prevented from leaving once vetted.

Two Arab diplomats briefed on the talks tell The Times of Israel that Egypt and Qatar are far less optimistic about the chances of reaching a ceasefire this week, arguing that the gaps are more prominent than Witkoff indicated.

While the US has offered Hamas verbal assurances through mediators that they will make sure the temporary truce remains in place even if an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire by the end of the 60-day agreement, one of the Arab diplomats says that verbal assurances are unlikely to suffice.

Hamas wants the text of the ceasefire to state that the truce will remain in place so long as negotiations on a permanent ceasefire continue, dropping the condition included in an earlier version that the talks be held “in good faith,” the Arab diplomat and the source familiar say. Hamas feels Israel will use that clause to abandon the ceasefire, as it did in March.

Verbal assurances may also carry less weight for Hamas, with a Palestinian official telling The Times of Israel that the terror group received ones before it released American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander in May, with mediators claiming then that it would lead the US to pressure Israel to end the war — something that has yet to take place.

For its part, the Israeli outlook on the current state of the talks appears closer to that of the more hesitant Arab mediators than Witkoff.

A senior Israeli official told reporters on Monday that Hamas’s July 4 response to the latest ceasefire proposal moved the sides backward and that more than a few days might be needed to reach an agreement.

The Israel Defense Forces announced on Friday that two soldiers were killed in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip where troops continue to push ahead with a grinding offensive.

The IDF announced that Sgt. Asaf Zamir, 19, from Dimona, a soldier in the 53rd Armored Battalion of the 188th Brigade, was killed during combat in the southern Gaza Strip.

Two other soldiers from the same battalion were seriously wounded in the incident in Khan Younis when their vehicle was hit by an anti-tank missile. They were evacuated to hospital for medical treatment and their families have been notified.

Earlier, the IDF said that Sgt. Yair Eliyahou, 19, from the community of Ezer, a combat engineering soldier in the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, was killed overnight during a combat-related operational accident in the northern Gaza Strip.

Eliyahou was killed when a heavy equipment vehicle fell into a hole in Beit Hanoun, hitting a vehicle being operated by Eliyahou, according to the reported initial findings of an IDF probe.

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The deaths bring Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 444. The toll includes two police officers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.

15 killed in Khan Younis

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes overnight on Friday killed at least 15 people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to Gaza’s Hamas-linked civil defense agency.

Civil defense official Mohammad al-Mughayyir told AFP that seven people, including a child, were killed in an Israeli air strike on displaced people’s tents near the city.

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He added that eight more people were killed in two other strikes on tent encampments on the coast of Khan Younis, including one that killed two children in the early hours of the morning.

The IDF told AFP that it cannot comment on specific attacks without precise coordinates, but noted it is “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities.”

The military says it does not deliberately target civilians and notes that Hamas has been using civilian sites, like hospitals, schools and displaced centers, as cover for their operations.

The IDF said Friday that the Air Force struck around 100 terror targets across the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours as ground forces continue operations against Hamas and other terror groups.

Targets of the air strikes included rocket launchers, military buildings, weapons depots and other infrastructure used by terror operatives.

Simultaneously, IDF ground troops from multiple divisions continued operations in Gaza City, northern Gaza, Khan Younis and Rafah, locating and destroying underground tunnels, weapons stockpiles and explosives planted to harm Israeli forces.

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Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said on Friday that Nasser Hospital, also in Khan Younis, is operating as “one massive trauma ward” due to an influx of patients injured at humanitarian distribution sites.

“Already for weeks they’ve seen daily injuries… with (the) majority coming from the so-called safe non-UN food distribution sites,” WHO representative Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva, apparently referring to sites operated by the controversial US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

“The hospital is now operating as one massive trauma ward,” he said.

Ravina Shamdasani, the spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHCR), said on Friday that at least 613 killings have been recorded both at aid points run by the GHF and near humanitarian convoys run by other relief groups since the GHF began operating in the Strip in late May.

“This is a figure as of June 27. Since then…there have been further incidents,” she said, adding that the rights office was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings, but that “it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points” operated by GHF.

According to the OHCHR, of the 613 people killed, 509 were killed near the GHF distribution points, and the others were killed near other aid distribution sites or trucks.

The OHCHR said its figure is based on a range of sources such as information from hospitals, cemeteries, families, Gaza health authorities, NGOs and its partners on the ground. It said it is verifying further reports and cannot yet give a breakdown of where they were killed.

Death tolls provided by Hamas-run Gaza health authorities cannot be independently verified and do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

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The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also told Reuters that there have been some instances of violent looting and attacks on truck drivers, which it describes as unacceptable.

GHF operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on those waiting to collect aid.

The IDF acknowledged earlier this week that Palestinian civilians have been harmed at the aid distribution sites, but that troops only used live fire when a threat was posed to them, including when dozens of suspects approached forces outside of the designated routes to the aid sites operated by the GHF, or outside operating hours.

Other reports have indicated that US contractors operating at the site have opened fire in some instances.

Israel has also accused Hamas of trying to stop Gazans from going the the sites which are designed to stop aid from falling into the hands of the terror group.

The war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251. Fifty hostages, including 28 confirmed dead, remain in Gaza.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.

Hamas commander Hussein Fayyad, whom the Israeli military claimed to have killed last May, has appeared in a newly surfaced video, according to the Palestinian media outlet Arab48.

The footage, widely shared on social media on Wednesday, shows a man resembling Fayyad speaking at a funeral in northern Gaza, standing amid the ruins of a bombed-out building, with a group of men listening.

Fayyad is the commander of Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion. Beit Hanoun was one of the first areas targeted by Israel in 2023.

In his speech, he praised Gaza’s resistance against Israel’s military assault, saying, “When the strong doesn’t achieve its goals, it is defeated, but the weak, which prevented the strong from achieving its goals – it is the victor.”

He also dismissed Israel’s offensive as futile.

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“Thanks to God, the Israeli army only got stones, body parts and blood,” he said, saying that Gaza remains defiant. “Gaza has emerged unbreakable. We all saw yesterday how Gaza stood victorious, with its head held high,” he added.

The Israeli military has admitted that its claim of killing Hamas’ commander in May was based on flawed intelligence, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

On Wednesday night, the Israeli army acknowledged that the findings were “not accurate enough” and that his death had only been “highly likely.”

Israel claimed in May that Fayyad, a senior commander of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades, was killed in an underground operation in Jabaliya tunnel.

In a statement at the time, the Israeli military said, “As part of IDF operational activity in the area of Jabaliya, IAF special forces and the ‘Yahalom’ eliminated the terrorist Hussein Fiad, the Commander of Hamas’ Beit Hanoun Battalion, during special operational activity in an underground area.”

According to its initial statement, he was responsible for coordinating anti-tank missiles fired at Israeli territory and mortar attacks toward “Israeli communities near the northern Gaza Strip”.

منصات تنشر لقطات لأول ظهور علني لقائد كتيبة بيت حانون أبو حمزة فياض خلال تجواله على منازل المواطنين المهدمة منازلهم والذين فقدوا أحبائهم.

بيت حانون كانت أول البلدات التي دخلها الاحتلال ودمر منازلها وواصلت مقاومته حتى اللحظة الأخيرة قبل إعلان وقف إطلاق النار. pic.twitter.com/72lIWFVVII — Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) January 22, 2025

His reappearance has raised questions about Israel’s credibility and its battlefield claims.

This is not the first time Israel has erroneously claimed the killing of key figures, as noted by the Times of Israel.

According to Israeli media reports, the Israeli army struggled to counter Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion. Initially assumed by the Israeli military to be one of the weaker arms of Hamas, the battalion proved formidable.

Israeli reports say that Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion adapted to the battlefield and began engaging in guerrilla warfare, which in January 2025 alone resulted in several Israeli soldiers being killed and wounded.