Tel Aviv, April 5 -- Israel expanded its ground operations in northern Gaza, advancing into Gaza City's eastern Shejaiya neighborhood to widen a buffer zone, the Israel Defense Forces said on Friday.

The military reported killing several terror operatives and destroying Hamas infrastructure in Shejaiya, including what it described as a command center.

In a separate development, the IDF announced it had killed a senior Hamas commander in an overnight airstrike in the Lebanese city of Sidon.

The target, Hassan Farhat, commanded Hamas's forces in western Lebanon and played a role in multiple attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. The IDF linked Farhat to a deadly February rocket strike on its Northern Command base in Safed that k...