Israel Defense Forces announced on Wednesday that three soldiers had died in fighting the day before in the northern Gaza Strip. This brings the total number of Israeli deaths in the ongoing ground operations in the Strip up to 164.

Ra’anana-based Lt. Yaron Elezer Chitiz is a 23-year old deputy company commander of the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion.

Staff Sgt. Itay Buton (20) of the Givati Brigade Shaked Battalion from Petah Tikva.

Staff Sgt. Efraim JACKMAN, 21, from Neve Daniel, Shaked Battalion of the Givati Brigade.

Jackman was a student at a yeshiva located in Yeruham, Yeruham’s southern town. He is the eighth person to die from this institution since the beginning of the war.

IDF released an update about some of the close quarters combat troops have experienced in the northern Gaza area over the last day.

The IDF reported that in Gaza City’s Shejaiya, where Hamas is believed to have been largely defeated, reservists from the Yiftah Brigade spotted Hamas operatives scurrying between buildings. Previously, gunfire had been directed towards troops.

The IDF reported that the secondary explosions were caused by the airstrike, indicating that the area had been booby-trapped.

The IDF also said that troops from the 261st Brigade in northern Gaza (the Bahad 1 Officers’ School in wartime), spotted two Hamas agents entering a vehicle, and driving towards a building which was used as an arsenal depot.

IDF reported that the troops called for an airstrike to be launched against the operatives. A fighter jet then struck the building.

The IDF reported that troops from the 401st Armored Brigade had identified a Hamas operative in the Gaza City neighborhoods Daraj and Tuffah wielding a small-range antitank missile.

The IDF reported that tanks in the area had shelled him before he was able to open fire.

The IDF believes that Hamas’s Daraj-Tuffah Battalion, which is located in northern Gaza’s area of control, is the last battalion to remain standing. This comes as the military focuses its attention on the central and southern parts of the Strip.

IDF has said that it carried out air, sea, and ground strikes against 200 Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours.

The terrorists have resumed attacks on Israeli soil. Rocket sirens blare in Nahal Oz, near the Gaza border, after a 16-hour lull. No reports of injuries or damage were made.

Since October 7, Hamas has largely evacuated the towns near the border of the enclave. The attack, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis and sparked the war, was a devastating one. At least 240 hostages were taken by terrorists from Gaza who smashed through the border in southern Israel.

Israel launched a military offensive to destroy Hamas and remove it from power in Gaza, as well as free the hostages.

UN official on human rights accused Israel of attempting to force Gazans to leave the Strip as it expanded its ground operations aimed at toppling Hamas.

Paula Gaviria Betancur is the UN Special Reporter on Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. She released a statement in which she claimed that the IDF was attempting to “en masse” deport Palestinians out of Gaza.

“As the military operations and evacuation orders continue to grow and the civilian population is subjected daily to unrelenting attacks, it’s only logical to conclude that Israel’s operation in Gaza is designed to deport a majority of civilians en masse,” Gaviria Betancur argued.

Israel denied reports that it wanted to force Gazans in Egypt for the duration the war and has said it does not seek any permanent population displacement.