The IDF continued its air and ground operations in Gaza on Saturday as the air force bombed suspected rocket sites and dropped leaflets on Saturday warning that the ground offensive was widening.
Jerusalem Post's Yaakov Katz reports on the leaflets as well as Friday night's and Saturday's fighting:
IAF planes dropped leaflets warning Gaza residents of an escalation in attacks, as southern Israel came under more Palestinian rocket fire.
"The IDF will escalate the operation in the Gaza Strip," the leaflets said in Arabic. "The IDF is not working against the people of Gaza but against Hamas and the terrorists only. Stay safe by following our orders."
The leaflets urged Gaza residents not to help Hamas, and to stay away from its members.
The Israeli military said more than 15 terrorists were killed in fighting overnight Friday. It said aircraft attacked more than 40 targets including 10 rocket-launching sites, weapons-storage facilities, smuggling tunnels, an anti-aircraft missile launcher and gunmen.
Also reported:
IDF troops in the Gaza Strip on Saturday targeted Hamas operative Amir Mansi.... known to be a close associate of Hizbullah, and received information from the group on a regular basis.
Mansi was killed while attempting to fire mortars at Givati troops at Jabal Rice, in the northern Gaza Strip. Two other combatants were also hit...
Mansi was personally involved in attacking Israeli troops showed that the Hamas military wing was in a serious state of distress, as senior Hamas operatives would not ordinarily venture out into battlefields.
Entire companies of Hamas had been completely wiped out, and some Hamas fighters had gone AWOL or fled battlefields.
"They are afraid to come out and fight, that's why Mansi went out to fire rockets on his own," the officer said.
Meanwhile, 20 rockets hit Israel on Saturday including 3 Grads hitting in Ashkelon injuring 4 people. Two Grads hit homes and a third Grad hit near an Ashkelon school on Saturday.
In Beersheva, 2,700 11th and 12th grade students are to return to classes given in bomb shelters.
By Saturday evening:
IAF attacked over 60 targets throughout the day, including: Two rocket launching squads near Jabaliya, shortly after they fired towards the Ashdod region; ten launching points, several of which were hidden underground; seven smuggling tunnels; an anti-aircraft launcher; approximately ten weapons-storage and weapons-production facilities; two vehicles used to store and transport weapons; and three Hamas outposts.
