IDF: ‘Very significant’ Hamas commanders among 650 nabbed at Gaza’s Shifa hospital
Top PIJ operatives also captured in ongoing raid at Strip’s largest medical complex; military releases drone footage of Hamas gunman waiting to ambush troops in Khan Younis
Troops have captured some 650 terror suspects, including several “very significant” senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad commanders, during an ongoing operation at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency said Thursday, as talks continued in Qatar to secure an extended truce and hostage deal.
According to the IDF, at least 358 of the detainees were confirmed to be members of terror groups.
The IDF said that Islamic Jihad operatives holed up at the medical center surrendered to troops, including Hussam Salameh, the commander of PIJ’s observation and intelligence unit in Gaza City, and his brother, Wissam Salameh, head of the terror group’s propaganda unit in Gaza City.
In an evening press conference, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari detailed additional senior PIJ operatives who were captured by troops at Shifa, including the commander of the terror group’s Shejaiya Battalion, the deputy commander of PIJ’s Northern Gaza Brigade, and a PIJ commander charged with the terror group’s tunnels in northern Gaza.
Also captured at Shifa were three senior officers in Hamas’s so-called West Bank headquarters, which is tasked with advancing attacks against Israel from the West Bank, the army said.
The Shin Bet named them as Amr Asida, the head of the Nablus unit; Mahmoud Qawasmeh, one of the planners of the 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens; and Hamdallah Hassan Ali, who was also involved in directing recent attacks in the West Bank.
Hagari said there were additional “very significant” senior Hamas commanders who were captured by troops at Shifa, but that their identities could not immediately be disclosed due to their ongoing interrogations.
He added that there was still a group of terror operatives holed up at Shifa’s emergency room, and the IDF was working to evacuate civilians from the area first before battling them.
The Shifa operation, now in its fourth day, began as Israel sent a delegation to Doha for negotiations of a truce and the release of 134 hostages held in Gaza — not all of them alive — since Hamas’s brutal October 7 onslaught.
See Also:
Gideon Sa’ar unveils plan to end Gaza war
‘Death or surrender’: IDF arrests 650, including ‘senior Hamas officials,’ in Shifa
Poll: Gazans increasingly happy with Oct. 7; 52% want Hamas to rule Strip after war
Palestinians demolish Jewish archaeological site in West Bank
Food crisis in Gaza? Data proves no famine, amid international accusations
Watch:
Whatever remains of Hamas in Gaza is mostly holed up in tunnels and in the southernmost city of Rafah, fat with food and weapons while the Arab residents of Gaza — we’re assured by the most trustworthy propaganda outlets — are either starved or slaughtered by genocidal Israeli soldiers.
But the ruin in the Gaza Strip is very real, and a World War II-style reminder of why it’s a bad idea to start wars with more powerful opponents. And yet a new poll shows that support for Hamas — and for murdering Jews — remains as strong as ever in what’s left of Gaza.
Here are the headline numbers, courtesy of Robert Staloff on Twitter.
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2024/03/21/death-to-jews-is-still-super-popular-with-gazans-getting-their-butts-kicked-by-jews-n4927510