The Israel Defense Forces have expanded their ground campaign in northern Gaza, encircling the town of Beit Hanoun after a July 7 ambush killed five soldiers and wounded 14 others from the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda Battalion. Brigadier General Effie Defrin said troops are now surrounding the area “from all sides” and preparing to clear a network of subterranean tunnels used by Hamas fighters. Combat teams from the Givati Brigade, operating under the 162nd Division and alongside the 99th Division, began a coordinated push on 9 July to dismantle Hamas command posts, weapons depots and anti-tank launch sites in and around Beit Hanoun. The IDF describes the neighborhood as heavily fortified and still sheltering dozens of militants. The Israeli Air Force struck about 130 targets across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, hitting command centers, tunnel shafts and rocket launchers while supporting ground forces in Beit Hanoun, Gaza City, Khan Yunis, Jabalia and Rafah. The military says dozens of militants were killed during the raids. In the south, the Golani Brigade operating under the 36th Division reported destroying more than 130 terrorist infrastructure sites in Khan Yunis over the past week, including a 500-meter tunnel network. The wider campaign, the IDF says, aims to erode Hamas’s remaining capability both above and below ground.