IDF forces struck Hamas sites in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip, the army reported on Saturday night. Following the intense air campaign, loud blasts were heard in the central Israeli cities of Yavne and Rehovot.
Earlier on Saturday, the IDF dropped leaflets over the city, urging civilians to evacuate ahead of an impending military operation there.
The operation follows attempts by Hamas to reestablish its military presence in the city, months after IDF forces captured and subsequently withdrew from it, as well as other areas in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF reported Saturday evening that Staff Sergeant Ariel Tsym, 20, a soldier of the Nahal Brigade's 931st Battalion, from Modi'in, was killed in action in the northern Gaza Strip.
Staff Sergeant Tsym fell in battle in Gaza City's Zeitoun district where four other 931st Battalion soldiers were killed Friday morning by what appeared to be two powerful explosions resulting from a booby-trapped site as they crossed an alley. The unit was en route to their target, a school complex harboring numerous terrorists when the soldiers were struck.
They were named as Sergeant Itay Livny, 19, from Ramat Hasharon; Sergeant Yosef Dassa, 19, from Kiryat Bialik; Sergeant Ermiyas Mekuriyaw, 19, from Be'er Sheva and Sergeant Daniel Levy, 19, from Kiryat Motzkin.
Sergeants Yosef Dassa and Daniel Levy were classmates, enlisted together in the IDF and completed their basic training last month.
Earlier on Friday, the IDF reported that Israeli forces uncovered a large weapons cache stashed within a school in the Zeitoun district of Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip.
Nahal Brigade troops found AK-47 rifles and magazines, as well as additional combat gear, stored in the classrooms. The discovery was part of a broader counterterrorism operation in the Zeitoun district, with Nahal forces raiding and demolishing sites used for terrorist activities, eliminating terrorists and seizing weapons and intelligence equipment.