The Israeli military on Monday successfully completed the mission to purge terrorists from Shifa Hospital.
The Israel Defense Forces, supported by the intelligence agency Israel Securities Authority (ISA) or Shin Bet, eliminated 200 terrorists, including several high-level terror operatives, and captured hundreds of others during the two-week-long operation in Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital with a capacity of nearly 900 beds.
“IDF and ISA forces completed operations against terrorist operatives and infrastructure at the Shifa Hospital: approximately 500 suspects affiliated with terrorist organizations were apprehended and 200 terrorists were eliminated,” the IDF said in a press release on Monday.
“Over the last two weeks, the IDF and the ISA conducted precise operational activity against terrorist operatives and infrastructure at Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip. The forces apprehended approximately 500 terrorists identified as affiliated with terrorist organizations, and eliminated hundreds of terrorists in the Strip,” the statement further disclosed.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad — both Iran-backed terrorist groups — were “using Shifa as a command and control center and military headquarters,” the Israeli military said.
The IDF troops and special forces fought in close questers, killing well-dug-in terrorists and uncovering large amounts of weaponry. “The forces found large quantities of weapons, intelligence documents throughout the hospital, encountered terrorists in close-quarters battles and engaged in combat while avoiding harm to the medical staff and patients,” the Israeli military said.
The raid, perhaps the most significant operation of the Gaza offensive, began on March 18 and concluded on April 1. “This morning, the mission was completed, and the forces withdrew from the area of the hospital,” the IDF statement confirmed on Monday.
The Times of Israel reported the details of the successful raid:
The Israel Defense Forces withdrew early Monday from the Gaza City complex housing the Shifa Hospital, after a two-week raid in which the military said it detained or killed hundreds of terror suspects.During the raid, which began March 18, the IDF said troops captured some 900 suspects, of whom more than 500 were confirmed to be terror operatives, and killed more than 200 gunmen. Among those killed and detained were top commanders in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Valuable intelligence was also seized, the IDF said.The military confirmed that its forces had left the hospital after earlier describing the Shifa raid as one of the most successful operations of the nearly six-month war.The Israel Defense Forces withdrew early Monday from the Gaza City complex housing the Shifa Hospital, after a two-week raid in which the military said it detained or killed hundreds of terror suspects.During the raid, which began March 18, the IDF said troops captured some 900 suspects, of whom more than 500 were confirmed to be terror operatives, and killed more than 200 gunmen. Among those killed and detained were top commanders in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Valuable intelligence was also seized, the IDF said.The military confirmed that its forces had left the hospital after earlier describing the Shifa raid as one of the most successful operations of the nearly six-month war. (…)The military also said Monday that it had lost its 600th soldier since the war began on October 7. Staff Sergeant Nadav Cohen, 20, from Haifa, was killed fighting in southern Gaza as part of the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion. He was the 256th soldier to fall during the military’s ground offensive in Gaza. Most of the other soldiers were killed repelling Hamas’s assault, and 10 have been killed in clashes with Hezbollah on the northern border.Eyewitnesses said dozens of airstrikes and shells had hit the area around the medical complex overnight Monday, with Hamas saying the Israeli strikes had provided cover for the withdrawing tanks, armored vehicles, and troops.Following the IDF withdrawal, scenes of widespread devastation were revealed at the hospital, where many of the gunmen trapped had refused to surrender and engaged in fierce battles with Israeli troops. (…)The army on Sunday released footage it said showed a cache of weapons seized by the Nahal Brigade’s reconnaissance unit in Shifa Hospital’s maternity ward.“No hospital in the world looks like this. This is what a house of terrorists looks like,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a Sunday news conference.The weapons, including mortars, explosive devices, sniper rifles, assault rifles, handguns, and other military equipment, were found hidden inside patient pillows and beds, and in the drop ceilings and walls of the building, according to the IDF.
After the IDF in mid-November drove terrorists out of Shifa, the Hamas and PIJ operatives crawled back into the hospital, hoping that Israel would not reenter the facility, fearing an international outcry. The Israeli military conducted a surprise raid, catching the terrorists off guard.
The IDF raid succeeded in killing many high-level terrorists. “Several terrorists were eliminated in the raid, including senior Hamas leader Ra’ad Thabat, as well as Mahmoud Khalil Ziqzouq, who was the deputy head of the rocket unit in Gaza City,” the Jerusalem Post reported Saturday. Ra’ad Thabat headed Hamas’s logistics and supplies and was counted among top ten wanted terrorists since Israel launched the Gaza offensive in response to the October 7 massacre.
“In addition, terrorists Fadi Dewik and Zakariya Najeeb were eliminated in an encounter in the maternity ward. Dewik, who carried out a shooting attack in the Adora settlement in 2002 in which four people were murdered,” the newspaper added.
Shifa is not the only hospital infested by terrorists. Hamas uses medical facilities across Gaza to wage terrorist warfare. The terror group uses hospitals, schools, and residential blocks to hoard weapons and launch attacks on Israeli troops in a bid to maximize civilian casualties in Gaza. The IDF raided two other hospitals in southern Gaza, capturing dozens of terrorists, the Israeli media reported Tuesday.
The Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported Tuesday:
In a recent operation in southern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) arrested dozens of terror operatives attempting to leave Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.The IDF, through its Commando Brigade, conducted searches in Nasser and al-Amal hospitals to prevent the establishment of Hamas infrastructure.According to IDF reports, the suspects were apprehended to ensure that Hamas does not re-establish its presence in these medical facilities.The captured individuals have been transferred to the Shin Bet security agency and Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 for further interrogation.During the operation in the al-Amal neighborhood of Khan Younis, IDF commandos seized weapons and engaged in clashes with armed gunmen, resulting in casualties among the terrorists.
The Iranian regime renewed threats against Israel after alleged IDF strikes killed several senior Islamic Guard (IRGC) and Hezbollah operatives in recent days. A series of reported Israeli drone and airstrikes, which began on Friday, targeted the IRGC, Hezbollah, and Iranian terrorist proxies in Syria and Lebanon. Iran has been using these two Arab countries on Israel’s northern border to intensify rocket attacks.
Iran on Monday claimed that an Israeli airstrike in Damascus, Syria killed several top IRGC terror commanders, including “Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Zahedi’s deputy, Gen Haji Rahimi. It was also reported that Brig Gen Hossein Amirollah, the chief of general staff for the al-Quds force in Syria and Lebanon, was among the victims,” the British newspaper Guardian reported. Al-Quds is the foreign terrorist arm of the IRGC.
The Times of Israel reported the vile Iranian threats:
Iran and Hezbollah vowed Tuesday to respond to a strike widely attributed to Israel that demolished Tehran’s consulate in Damascus and killed seven people, including two generals from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a US-designated terrorist organization.Iran’s state TV reported Tuesday that the country’s Supreme National Security Council, a key decision-making body, met late Monday and decided on a “required” response to the strike. The report said the meeting was chaired by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, but provided no further details.In an online statement, Raisi blamed Israel for the attack, saying the “cowardly crime will not go unanswered.”“After repeated defeats and failures against the faith and will of the Resistance Front fighters, the Zionist regime has put blind assassinations on its agenda in the struggle to save itself,” his statement added.“The evil Zionist regime will be punished at the hands of our brave men. We will make them regret this crime and the other ones,” Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a message published on his official website.
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