As the Israeli military approaches Hamas’s headquarters located inside the Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the Islamic terror group believes that the IDF will not strike the site, the interrogation of terrorists captured on October 7 reveals.
The nabbed terrorists, who took part in the last month’s massacre of Israelis, admitted under interrogation that Hamas was exploiting Israel’s consideration for civilians lives to use Gaza’s largest hospital, which houses more than 500 beds, for storing weapons and explosives as well as hiding its terrorist top brass as they direct attacks on IDF ground forces and order rocket barrages against Israeli civilians.
Detailing the confession of captured Hamas terrorists, the Israeli news website Ynet reported last Friday:
Last week, the IDF and Shin Bet released footage from interrogations of two terrorists who infiltrated Israel on October 7 and provided further evidence of Hamas operatives using hospitals in the Gaza Strip, and particularly Shifa, to shield themselves from IDF strikes.During his interrogation, Omar Abu Rusha, a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force, was asked about the connection between hospitals in Gaza and the Palestinian enclave’s vast system of subterranean tunnels, to which he responded, “most of them are hidden in the hospitals. (At) Shifa for example (the hospital), there are underground levels… Shifa is not small, it is a big place that can be used to hide things.”Abu Rusha is then asked by the interrogator about why Hamas was using medical institutions, such as hospitals and clinics, for protection, to which he answered, “you won’t strike them.”He explains that Hamas is taking advantage of the fact that Israel won’t strike hospitals to smuggle “explosives, weapons, food, medical equipment” for their operatives. “I told you, Shifa is a safe place, it will not be struck. To them it is safe, that’s what we know.”Abu Rusha also expressed criticism of Hamas when asked about the fuel situation in Gaza. “First, they take care of their own cars and jeeps and then distribute them to the people. They refuel from full containers for themselves,” he said.
Israeli troops fighting their way through terrorist-infested northern Gaza are also discovering Hamas’s utter disregard for Palestinian lives as they uncover more and more terrorist infrastructure embedded within and beneath Gaza’s residential areas.
On Thursday, the Israeli military captured a Hamas drone and weapons factory adjacent to kids’ bedroom in northern Gaza. “IDF soldiers discovered a Hamas weapons manufacturing and storage facility used to produce and store UAVs and weapons. The site was located in a residential building, in close proximity to schools in the center of the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) disclosed in a statement. “In the building, Hamas’ explosives and operational plans were found right next to a children’s bedroom.”
The weapons factory and depot, which contained explosives and bombs, was located near a school. “The Israel Defense Forces says the building, in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, is located next to a school,” the Times of Israel noted. “Footage shows troops finding several Hamas drones in the building, as well as equipment used to manufacture them, and instructions to make explosive devices. It says troops also recovered a number of bombs at the site.”
With Israeli tanks and ground troops operating in urban areas of northern Gaza, Hamas terrorists are using the vast tunnel network to fire mortars and anti-tank missiles at them. The IDF has responded by taking out several terror commanders directing these attacks. On Thursday, an Israeli air strike killed another Hamas commander responsible for attacks on IDF ground troops.
An IDF press release on Thursday disclosed:
Based on ISA and IDF intelligence, an IDF fighter jet killed Ibrahim Abu-Maghsib, Head of Hamas’ Anti-Tank Missile Unit in the Central Camps Brigade. As part of his position, Maghsib directed and carried out numerous anti-tank missile launches directed at Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.As part of the assistance to ground forces, Israeli Navy forces struck Hamas anti-tank missile launching posts used to attack IDF troops in the Gaza Strip.
Media reports on Thursday suggest that the Biden White House has succeeding in pressuring Israeli into allowing 4-hour ‘daily pauses’ in its ongoing ground offensive against terror group Hamas. Despite Hamas mortar and anti-tank strikes on Israeli troops securing the evacuation of Gazans from combat zone, the IDF has been pausing its operations to help civilians leave for safer areas in the south.
The Associated Press reported Thursday:
The White House said Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern Gaza starting on Thursday, as the Biden administration said it has secured a second pathway for civilians to flee fighting.President Joe Biden had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to institute the daily pauses during a Monday call. U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the first humanitarian pause would be announced Thursday and that the Israelis had committed to announcing each four-hour window at least three hours in advance. Israel, he said, also was opening a second corridor for civilians to flee the areas that are the current focus of its military campaign against Hamas, with a coastal road joining the territory’s main north-south highway.
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