Why Is Israel Fighting in the Same Gazan City for a Third Time?

At the beginning of the Gaza War, the IDF made a pincer movement into the northern part of the Strip, and by December reached the city of Jabaliya and engaged in an extended confrontation with Hamas units there. Israeli forces then moved south toward the Egyptian border, but returned to Jabaliya in May. In October, they returned to the city once again—this time after evacuating much of the civilian population—and have since been engaged in some of the fiercest of fighting of the war, killing or capturing hundreds of terrorists.