The IDF says troops of the Givati Brigade raided the main headquarters of Hamas’s

The IDF says troops of the Givati Brigade raided the main headquarters of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade in the southern Gaza Strip, used by the terror group for training ahead of the October 7 onslaught.Show more

The complex, known as the al-Qadsia outpost, also housed the office of Muhammad Sinwar, a senior Hamas military commander and the brother of the terror group’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, according to the IDF.

The IDF says al-Qadsia is the main outpost of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, which included a training ground with mock entrances to Israeli communities, IDF bases, and military vehicles, for Hamas to simulate and prepare for the October 7 attacks.

Another part of the complex included a Hamas command center and offices belonging to the Khan Younis Brigade’s senior commanders as well as a rocket depot and tunnel leading to a vast underground network, the IDF says.

Nearby, the IDF says the troops also found a weapons manufacturing site.

The IDF says that when it arrived to raid the outpost, troops discovered that Hamas had booby-trapped the area with explosive devices, which were neutralized by combat engineers.

Hamas gunmen also tried to ambush troops from an area near the outpost, the IDF says. The Hamas operatives opened fire, and troops responded with sniper fire, tank shelling and airstrikes, killing all of them, it says.

The Givati Brigade has been carrying out an offensive in Khan Younis for the past two months, most recently focusing on the city’s refugee camp (historically named and unrelated to the current conflict).

The IDF has identified that Hamas operatives in the western Khan Younis area have been hiding among civilian shelters.

In recent days, some 120,000 Palestinians were evacuated from the Khan Younis camp via a humanitarian corridor established by the IDF. Among the 120,000 moving through the corridor, Givati troops nabbed some 500 terror suspects and handed them over to be questioned in Israel. Some are suspected of being involved in the October 7 attacks, according to military sources.

“The brigade operates strongly in western Khan Younis and manages to bring the terrorists out of their hiding places every day,” says the commander of the brigade, Col. Liron Betito.

Givati troops have killed an estimated 550 Hamas operatives in battles in the Khan Younis area in recent weeks, and another 250 in airstrikes directed by the brigade, sources say. Today alone in the Khan Younis camp, Givati troops killed 14 gunmen.

The brigade has also lost eight soldiers during the fighting in Khan Younis.