Posted on 03/18/2024 7:11:16 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie
Soldier killed during operation; military says it had ‘concrete intelligence’ terror operatives regrouped in Strip’s largest medical center; 200 suspects captured
The Israel Defense Forces early Monday morning launched a raid on Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, amid intelligence that senior Hamas officials were in the area and using the hospital to plan and carry out terror activity, the military said.
During the operation troops killed a senior Hamas commander, according to the IDF. One Israeli soldier was also killed amid a gun battle with terror operatives in the area of the hospital before dawn.
The raid was launched at around 2:30 a.m., with troops of the IDF’s 401st Armored Brigade and other units, including special forces and the Shin Bet security agency, encircling the hospital, the largest medical center in the Gaza Strip.
As troops arrived at the medical center, Hamas gunmen opened fire “from within the hospital compound,” the IDF and the Shin Bet said.
The troops returned fire, killing and wounding several gunmen, according to the IDF.
There were other exchanges of gunfire in and near the hospital, the military said.
By Monday evening, some 20 Hamas gunmen were killed inside the hospital premises and another 20 were killed in the surrounding area, the IDF said.
In one incident inside the hospital, the IDF said troops of the Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit killed a senior Hamas commander, Faiq Mabhouh.
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Mabhouh, who served as the head of operations in Hamas’s internal security, was armed and hiding inside the Shifa complex, “from which he was working to advance terror activity,” the IDF said.
Mabhouh was killed amid an exchange of fire during an attempt to arrest him, the IDF said. In a nearby room, the IDF said troops recovered a cache of weapons.
Mabhouh, according to the IDF and Shin Bet, was responsible for the “synchronization” of various Hamas units in the Gaza Strip, including during the war.
The slain operative was the brother of senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mabhouh, who was allegedly assassinated by the Mossad in Dubai in 2010, Israeli defense sources confirmed to The Times of Israel. Mahmoud Mabhouh was chief of logistics and weapons procurement for the military wing of Hamas.
The IDF also announced that Staff Sgt. Matan Vinogradov, 20, of the Nahal Brigade’s 932nd Battalion, from Jerusalem, was killed in an exchange of fire in the area of Shifa Hospital early Monday.
His death brought the toll of slain troops in the IDF’s ground offensive against Hamas to 250.
The IDF released footage (above) showing what it said were Hamas gunmen shooting at troops from the hospital premises and the nearby area as the raid began. The footage also showed a roadside bomb being detonated against an Israeli armored vehicle, which the IDF said was activated by operatives at Shifa.
Also at Shifa, the IDF said troops also found weapons and money provided by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to its operatives at the hospital.
Israel’s intelligence indicated that Hamas operatives and commanders from the northern Gaza Strip recently arrived at the hospital premises to use the buildings as a command center to manage the fighting against IDF troops and carry out attacks against Israel.
The IDF said in a statement that it had “concrete intelligence” Hamas operatives had regrouped at the hospital and were planning terror activity.
There was no information on hostages being held in the area, according to the IDF.
Several hours into the raid, the IDF said it had established control over the area, with troops surrounding several buildings at the Shifa complex while calling on Hamas members inside to come out and surrender.
Suspects were being questioned at the hospital by field interrogators of the Shin Bet and the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504. The IDF said that as of Monday evening, some 200 suspects had been detained by troops. The military claimed that some of those captured were confirmed terror operatives.
In a statement overnight, the military said troops at the hospital were “briefed in advance regarding the importance of preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment” and that Arabic speakers were with the security forces to facilitate communication with patients and staff.
IDF doctors were also on hand “to assist those in need.” Once the operation at the hospital is over, “the IDF will continue the humanitarian effort and provide food, water, and additional supplies to the patients and civilians in the complex,” the military said.
Patients and the medical staff at Shifa were not ordered to evacuate the hospital but the military created pathways for civilians to leave the area, the IDF said.
During the raid, the IDF called on those living near hospital and residents of the nearby Gaza City neighborhood of Rimal to evacuate to the al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone” on the coast of southern Gaza.
Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, published a map of the zones that need to be evacuated alongside the announcement. He said the civilians must evacuate south via the Strip’s coastal road.
At the beginning of Israel’s ground offensive against Hamas, in late October, the IDF called on all Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza to evacuate south, but some 300,000 have remained since regardless.
Ahead of the raid, the IDF warned Hamas..
This will move the Team IDF up in the play-offs.
Better make sure the 200 never see the light of day.
Hat tip to Israel
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