IDF says 99th Division killed over 100 militants in four months in northern Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday that its 99th Division has finished a four-month deployment in the northern Gaza Strip, during which, by the military's count, troops killed more than 100 militants and put roughly eight kilometers of underground tunnels out of use. According to the IDF spokesperson's statement, the division operated east of what the army calls the Yellow Line, working to take apart what it described as terrorist infrastructure both above ground and underground, and to stop Hamas from rebuilding its military capabilities.

The army said the 162nd Division will carry on operations in the area. In a summary posted on its X account, the IDF said those killed included men who crossed into Israel during the October 7 attack, and that numerous infrastructure sites had been dismantled in addition to the tunnel work.

What the army says the division did

The IDF's figures cover three broad categories. The first is people killed: more than 100, whom the military describes as terrorists. The second is tunnels: approximately eight kilometers neutralized, a term the IDF uses for tunnels destroyed or rendered unusable. The third is surface infrastructure, which the army describes only as numerous sites dismantled.

Joe Truzman, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington-based research institute, relayed additional detail from the IDF. Truzman wrote that, according to the army, troops also took down observation posts and buildings used to plan attacks, and that those killed included people involved in the October 7 attack, people holding Israeli hostages, and people who had planted explosives aimed at Israeli soldiers. Truzman presented these points as the IDF's claims rather than as his own findings.

Who the 99th and 162nd Divisions are

The IDF organizes its ground forces into divisions, large formations that combine several brigades and are assigned to specific sectors. Divisions rotate in and out of areas such as Gaza, with one formation handing responsibility to another when its deployment ends. The statement describes exactly such a handover: the 99th Division leaving the northern Gaza sector and the 162nd Division taking over there.

The Yellow Line and northern Gaza

The Gaza Strip is a narrow coastal territory bordered by Israel to the north and east and by Egypt to the south. Its northern part lies closest to Israeli communities across the border. The IDF statement places the 99th Division's activity east of the Yellow Line, meaning on the side of the Strip nearer the Israeli frontier. The reports refer to the line by name but do not explain how it is drawn or what arrangements govern each side of it.

The army framed the mission partly as preventive: its stated goal was to stop Hamas, the Islamist militant group that led the October 7 attack on Israel, from restoring its capabilities. Tunnels have been a central part of that group's military infrastructure in Gaza, and the IDF regularly reports tunnel lengths as a measure of its operations.

How the information reached the public

All three reports trace back to the military. Two are the IDF's own channels, its official Telegram statement and its X account. The third, from Truzman, explicitly attributes its figures to the IDF. None of the material comes from Hamas, from Palestinian sources, or from independent observers on the ground, and no outside body has confirmed the casualty or tunnel figures.

What the reports do not say

The statements leave several questions open. They do not identify any of the people killed, or explain how the army determined that they were militants or that some had taken part in the October 7 attack or held hostages. They do not say whether any civilians were killed during the four months, and they do not mention Israeli military casualties.

The reports also do not specify where in northern Gaza the tunnels were located, how many separate tunnels make up the eight-kilometer figure, or what the dismantled infrastructure sites were beyond the observation posts and buildings Truzman mentioned. They do not define the Yellow Line, give the exact dates the deployment began and ended, or describe what the 162nd Division's mission will involve beyond continuing operations in the area. Hamas has not responded in the material available.