IDF Eliminates 90 Terrorists, Apprehends Hundreds in Raid on Gaza Shifa Hospital Complex
IDF: Several ‘senior Hamas terrorists’ killed while ‘conducting and promoting terrorist activity’ from Shifa.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) eliminated around 90 terrorists and caught hundreds others as part of the raid on Gaza’s Shifa hospital being used a Hamas base.
“The IDF said 350 suspects were arrested in the raid conducted by the 401st Brigade, the elite Duvdevan and Shayetet 13, and Shin Bet forces,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported Wednesday evening.
The military also recovered large amount of weapons from the hospital. “The raid uncovered AK-47 assault rifles, machine guns, magazines, mortars, grenades, RPGs, and combat gear.” the TV channel added.
The main objective behind the raid on Shifa is to target Hamas’s top leadership. “[W]e are aiming at senior leaders,” IDF chief of staff , Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said during a visit to the site of the raid on Wednesday evening. The operation will help raise “pressure on the negotiations” aimed at releasing the hostages, the IDF chief added.
Several ‘senior Hamas terrorists,’ including the head of the terrorist group’s internal security, were killed while they were ‘conducting and promoting terrorist activity’ from Shifa hospital located in the heart of Gaza City, the IDF said in a press release.
The Israeli troops were forced to raid the hospital for the second time — after a similar operation in mid-November. The hospital, Gaza’s biggest medical facility, was being used a terrorist base for attacking Israeli troops. During the previous operation, the military “found Hamas weapons and combat gear in Al Shifa hospital,” the Reuters noted at that time.
Hamas has built a vast tunnel complex around the hospital, using it for weapons storage and hideout for terrorists. Hamas “used the hospital for cover, stored weapons inside it, and maintained a hardened tunnel beneath the complex that was supplied with water, power, and air-conditioning,” the New York Times reported February 12 citing IDF intelligence.
The IDF says it located weapons and apprehended about 350 suspects in a targeted operation by the IDF and ISA at Shifa Hospital, led by the 162nd Division and special forces. pic.twitter.com/VsRcauxU0a
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) March 20, 2024
The newspaper Israel Hayom reported the details of the operation in Shifa:
The IDF said on Wednesday it had killed around 90 gunmen and arrested 160 in a raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital.
“Over the past day, the troops have eliminated terrorists and located weapons in the hospital area, while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment,” the military said in a statement.
The military said Tuesday that forces have arrested around 180 suspects. Israel launched the raid at Shifa Hospital overnight into Monday, saying Hamas had regrouped in the compound and was directing attacks from it. The military said gunmen fired on its forces from inside and that one of its soldiers was killed during the raid.
The army said it killed a senior Hamas militant who was armed and hiding inside the hospital. Palestinian officials said he was a senior commander in the Hamas-run police who was coordinating the protection of convoys.
One of the high-profile terrorists caught in Shifa was the mastermind of the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers in 2014. “The IDF and the Shin Bet on Wednesday announced that they had captured Mahmoud Kawasme – the last remaining conspirator at large from the Hamas murder of three Israeli teenagers in 2014 – as part of their operations to retake Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
Justice happens: IDF captured Mahmoud Kawasme – the last remaining conspirator at large from the Hamas murder of three Israeli teenagers in 2014.
— Evgeny Ben. (@Evgeny_Ben) March 20, 2024
He was arrested in Shifa Hospital in Gaza.https://t.co/xrwKuoQoyN
The IDF will keep protecting Gaza civilians despite Hamas endangering their lives by using hospital, mosques, schools and other public facilities as staging grounds for ambushing Israeli soldiers, the military assured.
“The IDF will continue to act in accordance with international law and against the Hamas terrorist organization – which operates from hospitals and civilian infrastructure in a systematic and cynical way, without the distinction between the civilian population and the organization’s terrorists,” the IDF statement added.
Netanyahu tells Biden: Victory over Hamas impossible without entering Rafah
Israel is “determined to achieve total victory” over Hamas, even if it means going against the wishes of the Biden White House, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday while revealing the details of a telephone call with the U.S. president that took place on Monday.
“I told the President: It is impossible to defeat Hamas without the IDF entering the Gaza Strip. In our latest conversation, I told him: It is impossible to complete the victory without the IDF entering Rafah in order to eliminate the remnants of Hamas’s battalions,” the Israeli PM said in a statement release on Wednesday.
Israel will evacuate civilian population as part of the operation in Rafah, Netanyahu assured. “I want you to know that I have already approved the IDF’s operational plan, and soon we will also approve the plan to evacuate the civilian population from the battle zones,” he added, addressing the Israeli people.
The Israeli armed forces were destroying Hamas’s terrorist fighting capabilities across Gaza, particularly around the Shifa compound, as they gear up for a major offensive on Rafah stronghold, the Israeli leader said.
“As we are preparing to enter Rafah, and this will take a little time, we are continuing to operate with full force. We are continuing to operate in Khan Yunis, in the camps in the center, in eliminating and capturing senior Hamas officials as we have just done in Shifa, and in eliminating hundreds of terrorists,” he concluded.
According to recent reports in Politico and other U.S. news outlets, the Biden administration had laid down a ‘red line’ warning the Israeli government not to launch a large-scale operation against the last terrorist stronghold of Rafah, where Hamas leaders are hiding and the remaining Israeli hostages are believed to be kept as human shields.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Israel, stick it to them.
I hope they aren’t planning to sentence these gang rapists, mass murderers, kidnappers, torturers, war criminals, and terrorists to prison. They should be tried, and when found guilty, immediately executed. Any who were hiding behind civilians should be tried and shot on the spot – pausing only to force a spoonful of lard down their throats.
“The raid uncovered AK-47 assault rifles, machine guns, magazines, mortars, grenades, RPGs, and combat gear.” the TV channel added.”
Hospital. Armory. Same same in Gaza.
I hope the IDF is stockpiling them for their own future use.
Hamas probably doesn’t even understand that the rules have changed. In previous years Israel wouldn’t have come close to the hospital, something that made it the perfect HQ for terrorists.
The was is the “find out” part that goes after “fuck around.”
I’d say better to take the ammunition and and booby trap about half of it and put it back into circulation. Let a couple of terrorists lose their hands and see how willing they are to use it.
Better to plant small caches which make their day, It would likely kill more of Hamas.
“I condemn this war crime committed by imperialist, colonial, settler, Zionist usurpers, against the innocent Palestinian mujahideen; noble holy warriors fighting for their people’s liberation. May Allah bless America.
— Dhimmi-crat Joe Biden
Has Hamas been given any red-line warnings by the US? Hamas is the government of Gaza. Violating the Geneva Conventions by using its own citizens as meat shields ought to be well past any honest red lines. So should theft of humanitarian aid.
1. Hamas is not the legitimate government of anywhere.
2. The USA has no leverage on Hamas, so how can it make demands of it?
They are the government whether you consider it legitimate or not. They were elected in the last popular election to be held there. There is no reasonable opinion that they would not win another popular election if one had been held the day before 10/7.
After 10/7 is just buyer’s remorse. When you start the war, you don’t get to decide when it ends.
We are certainly treating them like they are. Tell them they screwed up and have to pay the price. Then we’ll talk.
Hamas was elected once. There’s nothing at all to indicate that they ever would have lost an election if they’d held elections, and it certainly appears that they would have been re-elected by a landslide if they’d held another election on Oct 8 last year. They had armed forces (although not in uniform, so they’re illegal combatants and could be summarily executed under the laws of war). They ordered those armed forces to invade Israel, and to rape, murder and kidnap civilians. They are a government, and they aren’t terrorists, but war criminals.
EVERY ONE of them should be tried and executed.
90 more innocent Gazans killed by Israel according to Hamas’ official stats.
I’m sure your numbers are accurate because you got them from Hamas right? They are right up there with 30,000 women and children who have been killed too, right?
I think he was being sarcastic.
My last records indicate eleventy billion casualties.
Seriously? Why would you even post something containing figures from Hamas? *Nothing* they ever publish is ever correct or even close to true.
There is no such thing as innocent Palestinians. Palestinians indoctrinate their children to hate Jews. They teach them there is no greater honor than killing a Jew.
I think it is true that the overwhelming majority have seared consciences, but I do believe there are a small, maybe very small as to be tiny, number of Christians and also those who blame Hanas not Israel, at least I see some video supposedly showing that.
There’s also been some video of Hamas shooting at people trying to leave in advance of Israeli attack. That’s SOP for Hamas.
Indeed. The Bride and I know personally a missionary couple who spent something like thirty years in Gaza. They say without hesitation that the Christian Gazans are in more danger from their Hamas supporting neighbors than anyone else. Being a Christian in Gaza is hazardous to their health but they exercise their faith nonetheless. They are to be admired. If that isn’t bravery, what else is it?
In warfare, one cannot hesitate because of small, very small, tiny minorities.
To be clear, I agree that Israel must go forward to victory, and I am pleased with how they take great pains to protect “possibly innocent” by not just leveling the place.
As DSHornet commented above, I have seen a picture reportedly of Gazan Christians standing next to Israeli tanks, having sought refuge as they advanced.
They pass out candy in the streets to celebrate murdering Jews.
How did Hamas get back into the hospital?
That is my question also….
I am guessing that:
1) there are not enough Israelí troops to secure the north and central and wage combat in the south at the same time
2) they haven’t simply flooded or gassed tunnels because they are still hoping to find living hostages or they just don’t have enough manpower and resources to do all that needs to be done
Or does Israel give opportunity for the remnant that escaped to self identify by returning to their haunts?
If anyone knows more please educate us.
Maybe. In 67 they secured it easily enough. The problem is the high level of support the Hamassholes enjoy from the locals. That’s going to be a long term challenge.
I suspect via their tunnels.. They should modify Bouncing Bettys with spread spectrum arm-disarm and capability and motion and proximity detectors, placing them throughout those tunnels.
By flashing their UNRWA credentials?
Listening to the BBC on Monday night you would think them evil Juices were killing innocent Palestinians out of spite when they reported on the road.
Sign posted at main entrance:
“Hamas fighters are in short supply. No more abortions at Al Shifa hospital until further notice. All Palestinian women urged to get pregnant immediately in order to re-supply Hamas pipe line.”
Producing lots of babies to turn into cannon fodder has been their policy since Israel was founded.
I think all, if not close to, hostages are dead
This should be the working assumption immediately after hostages are taken, in general. Hostages are presumed dead unless they show up back home alive. I’m relieved to see that this time, unlike the past, the taking of hostages has not handcuffed Israel.
NO! This is all Fake News. Hamas does not use human shields in hospitals, the UN does not know about any of this and Corporate Media is shocked at this information. With 50,000 dead children how does everyone expect Hamas to keep track of everything?
Good satire but you should have used “shocked, shocked!”
Yeah no kidding. The numbers put out by Hamas are absurd. I saw an analysis of the claimed numbers that pretty thoroughly debunked them. First the absolute numbers claimed are weirdly consistent on a daily, weekly basis. Secondly the categories male, female, children, civilian, combatant are also bizarrely off in that instead of children claimed as casualties being killed in some proportion to women they stay consistent. It’s very odd that claimed non combatant children deaths are not mirrored with deaths of non combatant women. One would expect the claimed women and children non combatant deaths to be in ‘pockets’ which isn’t what Hamas is reporting. It’s as if Hamas isn’t putting in any effort to hide the BS casualty count b/c there doesn’t appear to be natural variation in their claims.
They assumed Israel would turn soft and things wouldn’t have gone on nearly this long. They don’t have a strategy for such long-term propaganda.
MSM news is simply propaganda enhanced by the MSM echo chamber. As a base for Hamas operations Shifa hospital is an enemy operations location and as such should be leveled as well as all other building used for Hamas operations. It was a mistake for Israel not to level the hospital last November and now they have to retake it a second time. The allies rules of was, as laid down between 1939 and 1945, should be the governing rules.
Propaganda, and as much as they can get away with, often Hamas or Qatar propaganda. Think of the Red Cross, that great humanitarian organization we’ve always been told, actively participating in the Palestinian stipend program for killing Jews. They provide the necessary paperwork so that the families of those murderers in Israeli prison can receive ongoing stipends from Mahmoud Abbas’ PA regime.
Isn’t the word “humanitarian” usually used by antisemites? I’ve noticed that correlation. It’s their excuse, their grift.
Under the real laws of war, Israel would have been justified in executing every single one of them with no trial….. and should have.
Under the laws of war, Israel would have been within its rights to bomb the hospital complex into dust as its use as a military installation by Hamas removed all protections it might have once had as a medical facility in a time of war. And then and only then should they have executed every last surviving enemy combatant terrorist. No reason Israel needs to keep these facilities intact or the terrorists alive.
Why aren’t there 250 dead terrorists? LEAVE NONE ALIVE.
Biden and Blinken must be sad.
Dementia Joe traded one hostage for billion dollars each. He just can’t imagine how his policy might have encouraged islamo-fascist terrorists.
smh