IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi held a situation assessment on the ongoing military operation at Gaza City's Al Shifa Hospital on Wednesday, clarifying the IDF is aiming to arrest senior Hamas officials as part of the operation and put pressure on the terror group to negotiate the release of Israeli hostages.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that senior Hamas officials were arrested at the hospital before the IDF and Shin Bet announced the arrest of Mahmoud Kawasme, a senior Hamas figure who was behind the planning of the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teens Gil-ad Shaer, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel in June 2014.
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IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi in Al Shifa Hospital
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
"So far, the results are good, but we’re aiming to capture senior figures. Marwan Issa’s elimination and the arrest of senior figures is very important to put pressure on Hamas - and it’s also important for the negotiations," Halevi told commanders.
"We are serving two purposes here - dealing a heavy blow to Hamas and dismantling it, eliminating its military and political leadership, targeting terrorists and preventing terrorism from taking control. We’re also working to pressure Hamas for the negotiations."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed the operation at Al Shifa, saying in a statement, "We continue to operate in Khan Younis, in Hamas’s central camps, in eliminating and capturing senior Hamas members as we did now at Al Shifa, and in eliminating hundreds of terrorists."
IDF Spokesperson RADM Daniel Hagari issued a statement from the hospital on Wednesday, on the third day of the operation, and said that among the terrorists detained were “many Islamic Jihad terrorists, including commanders, alongside Hamas terrorists and politburo members." According to Hagari, the operation’s goal is "to arrest senior figures alive and bring them in for questioning. Those who fight will be killed."
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Military equipment located by troops in the Al Shifa Hospital
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
The IDF said military forces alongside the Shin Bet forces continued their efforts to combat Hamas in the hospital. Troops pressed on with their operations in the area as part of the effort to capture terrorists in hiding who use the civilian population as human shields.
IDF and Shin Bet forces have so far arrested 350 terrorists in the area and located military equipment throughout the hospital, including AK-47 rifles, machine guns, grenades, ammunition and anti-tank missiles.
The report added that U.S. dollars and Jordanian dinars worth NIS 11 million were discovered by the forces in the hospital, intended for terror uses. During the operation, 3,700 Gazans passed through an IDF checkpoint near the hospital and then moved south. Dozens of the detainees are senior terrorists and other key Hamas figures.
Moreover, it was reported that fuel and humanitarian aid trucks entered the Strip on Wednesday, bringing in 1,800 liters of water and 3.8 tons of food to the Strip.
One of the major arrests made in the operation was that of senior Hamas terrorist Mahmoud Kawasme, one of the Palestinian inmates deported to Gaza in the 2011 prisoner swap for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, from where he directed Hamas terrorist activities in the West Bank, including the abduction and murder of Gil-ad Shaer, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel, as well as several shooting attacks in recent years.
The parents of two of the Israeli teens congratulated the forces on Kawasme’s arrest. Bat Galim and Ofir Shaer, the parents of Gil-Ad Shaer, said, “As Israeli citizens, we gain strength from knowing we will reach all those who dared to harm us with certainty. Justice will ultimately prevail, and the heroic IDF soldiers and security forces are carrying out their missions courageously."
"We hope that the man is senior enough to have information that will help bring back the hostages alive and return the bodies of those who were murdered,” said Racheli Fraenkel, mother of Naftali Fraenkel.
“I know his expertise is in carrying out terror attacks in the West Bank, but he is a senior figure, and I hope he can say more. We thank the military and Shin Bet for their constant work. This is an opportunity to express our gratitude."
According to Palestinian reports, senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza Khaled al-Batsh was also arrested in the operation carried out in the hospital. This marks one of the most significant arrests made since the start of the war, and the most senior figure in the terrorist organizations in the Strip arrested since October 7.
Al-Batsh held a series of positions in the terrorist organization, with the last central one being to organize the March of Return movement in 2018, during which Palestinians violently rioted along the border with Israel.