Searching Gaza for Hamas Terrorists

"Each and every interrogation leads to the release of new locations and the human intelligence that emerges from the Gaza Strip."

"More than ten out of these 24 battalions [were] damaged significantly. In some battalions, we eliminated hundreds of Hamas terrorists."

"This can't be replaced (Hamas commanders killed in battle) in a war."

"[The number of rockets fired at Israel is decreasing, reaching] nearly zero. [Hamas still has firepower, however, and] if we want to take it, we have to go to the south [of Gaza]."

Senior Israeli military official speaking anonymously under army guidelines 

Footage released by the IDF on November 20, 2023, of an interrogation of a Gazan terror suspect by the Shin Bet security service. (Screen capture/IDF)

 

According to new revelations by the Israeli military, over 300 members of Hamas and other terrorist groups arrested in Gaza during the Israel Defense Forces ground invasion have been interrogated. Those interrogations have  yielded invaluable intel, including revelations of locations of underground tunnels, warehouses, weapons and the use of civilian infrastructure by Hamas.

The vast underground command complex centre beneath the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza is of particular interest to the invading forces, since it is reputed to be the locale, hidden among the most vulnerable of places in wartime, a vast hospital complex, where vital command centres for the terrorists have been installed, shielded from view and presumably from attack during war.

Although Hamas, as well as Gaza health officials deny that Hamas has any positions installed within and beneath the hospital complex, intel says otherwise, and the forays by the IDF into and under the hospital have proven intel right and Hamas deceptive. Videos have been revealed from closed-circuit cameras showing Hamas operatives hustling Israeli hostages into and through the hospital.

 

Hamas terrorists bring a hostage into Shifa Hospital as seen on surveillance footage from October 7, 2023. (IDF)

 

According to the anonymous official, his intelligence unit has had thousands of telephone calls from residents of Gaza. Although no details were forthcoming, ostensibly to inform the IDF intelligence of information that might be useful in finding the sought-after evidence of Hamas duplicity in carrying out war crimes against its own population. 

The human intelligence unit of the Israeli army, Unit 504, placed thousands of calls to Gaza residents and dropped millions of leaflets to alert and urge the Palestinians to evacuate to the territory's southern area as long as Israeli forces continue to target buildings in northern Gaza. There was a battle between Israeli forces and terrorists in the vicinity of a second hospital Monday, where thousands of patients and displaced residents have sheltered for weeks. IDF troops returned fire from Hamas fighters firing on them from within the 3.5-acre hospital compound.

Since the start of the war, over ten of Hamas's battalions sustained significant degradation. The battalion represents the main Hamas army unit, with roughly a thousand operatives in each. The IDF estimates that thousands of Hamas terrorists have been killed in the Israeli offensive. Most battalions are located in northern Gaza. A large number of Hamas commanders have also been killed; some battalions with over half their commanders gone.

In northern Gaza, Hamas's main rocket arsenals are concentrated. "We're approaching the end of our campaign in northern Gaza to root out Hamas infrastructure and will turn to the rest of the Gaza Strip", explained Eylon Levy, spokesman for the Israeli government. The main thrust of the ground offensive so far has been east into Gaza City, the Hamas "centre of gravity".

Many parts of the city's largest hospital, Al Shifa, are in control of Israeli forces. Videos were found over the weekend giving proof of Hamas's exploitation of the facility, where a command centre had been built, and a network of tunnels constructed under the ground.

IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari with weapons found by IDF forces in a Hamas command center underneath Gaza City’s Rantisi Hospital, in a photo released by the military on November 13, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)