Israeli army forces have been deployed to positions along the Gaza coast as part of expanding ground operations, completing the encirclement of the city from all directions, the IDF said Sunday night..

The operational objective of the ground forces is to surround Hamas forces in Gaza City and strike and destroy selected targets, including major assets and command and control centers belonging to Hamas, according to Israeli forces.

During the fighting in Gaza, the IDF reports that they have hit over 1,600 targets belonging to Hamas, it says in a statement while pointing out that the targets include the organization’s infrastructure, weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile launch and observation sites and Hamas officials.

In their statement, the IDF states that “since the beginning of the war, the soldiers of the 36th Division have eliminated over by 300 terrorists in operations that included artillery fire and coordination between the Israeli Air Force and infantry and armored soldiers. In the last 12 hours, the soldiers of the division struck about 50 targets, including combat zones, operational residences, outposts, military posts and underground infrastructure, and eliminated terrorists in close combat.”