Israeli military says it has completed its operation against Hamas at northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital

Report:

The Israeli military says it has completed its operation against Hamas at northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital and the surrounding area, during which some 240 suspected terror operatives were detained, including the medical center's director and 15 terrorists who participated in the October 7 onslaught.

The IDF said it had intelligence of the hospital "returning to being used as a Hamas terror stronghold and a shelter for terrorists, despite repeated calls to refrain from allowing [terror operatives] to exploit hospitals for military activities."

The operation was led by the IDF's 162nd Division with several units. 

At the start of the raid, the IDF says troops of the 401st Armored Brigade surrounded the hospital, detained several members of terror groups, and killed additional gunmen.

Members of the Navy's Shayetet 13 commando unit then carried out "precise activities" inside the hospital, during which they located and captured weapons, including grenades, handguns, ammunition, and other military equipment, according to the IDF.

Over 240 members of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and others suspected of being members of terror groups were detained amid the operation, the military says.

The IDF says some of the terror operatives "tried to impersonate patients and medical staff and some tried to escape in ambulances."

Among those detained is the director of Kamal Adwan, Hussam Abu Safiya, who the IDF says is suspected of being a Hamas operative. 

At least 15 of those arrested at the hospital area participated in the October 7 onslaught, according to the military. Several members of Hamas's engineering and anti-tank forces were also arrested in the operation.

The suspects were questioned by field interrogators from the Military Intelligence Directorate's Unit 504 and the Shin Bet security agency. The IDF says that many of them admitted to the interrogators that they participated in "terror activity" in the hospital area.

During the operation, the military says operatives launched RPGs and anti-tank projectiles at troops from an area near the hospital and attempted other attacks. 

There were no injuries among the Israeli forces, and the operatives behind the attacks were killed, the IDF says. The IDF adds that a drone strike also eliminated a cell of gunmen whose members tried to flee the area.

Before launching the operation, the IDF says it enabled the evacuation of 350 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel to other hospitals, in an effort coordinated by the Defense Ministry's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

Also during the weeks prior to the operation, "tens of thousands of liters of fuel, food, and medical supplies for the essential functioning of the hospital" were delivered to Kamal Adwan.

During the raid itself, the IDF says another 95 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel were evacuated from Kamal Adwan to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, where 5,000 liters of fuel, two generators, and medical equipment were delivered, "to maintain and operate essential systems in the hospital."

Hundreds of Palestinian civilians also left the hospital area "via defined evacuation routes," the military adds.

 

 

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