According to an IDF spokesman, 85% of Gaza’s hospitals are used by Hamas (file photo)
Tel Aviv:
Video released by the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday showed a group of Palestinian terrorists escaping in an ambulance in Gaza’s Zeitoun district.
According to the military, soldiers from the IDF’s 162nd Division and 401st Brigade were searching for and destroying rocket launchers and launch craters when a Hamas terror squad fired anti-tank missiles at close range. Israeli aircraft responded, killing most of the squad.
However, Israeli drone surveillance footage captured armed survivors entering an ambulance bearing the Palestinian Red Crescent logo.
More than 100 terrorists were neutralized and 35 locations in Zeitoun belonging to two terrorist groups were destroyed, including rocket launch sites, weapons manufacturing and storage facilities, tunnel shafts and operations centers.
24-hour operational updates:
📍Olives:
IDF troops neutralized the terrorists, destroyed tunnel shafts, recovered weapons and five rocket launch pits.📍Central Gaza:
The soldiers spotted a terrorist group closing in on ground forces and directed an aircraft to eliminate the group.📍Sweat… pic.twitter.com/nJf2JLWnWb
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 29, 2024
In another incident, Israeli forces spotted a Hamas sniper firing from a neighboring building and directed an air strike that killed him.
Israeli forces also destroyed the terrorist infrastructure of Aladdin Haddad, a senior commander of Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari said 85 percent of Gaza’s hospitals are used for terror activities by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
In December, Ahmed Kalot, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, confirmed to Israeli interrogators that he and other staff were Hamas agents.
During interrogation, Kalot described how Hamas used hospitals and ambulances to hide agents, launch military campaigns, transport terrorists and even transport a kidnapped Israeli soldier.
Other Gazans told Israeli interrogators that they were deeply integrated into the Palestinian Red Crescent and used the hospital as a base for attacks.
Hamas makes extensive use of Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical center, Tazpet News Agency reported. Hamas fires rockets from its compound, hides hostages inside buildings, tortures collaborators and digs tunnels connecting Shifa to nearby sites. Israel also released a phone recording confirming that Hamas also stored at least 500,000 liters of fuel beneath the compound.
In Jenin, northern Samaria, Israeli soldiers disguised as doctors and nurses killed three terrorists who were hiding in Ibn Sina Hospital and planning an imminent terrorist attack.
On October 7, Hamas attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza border, killing at least 1,200 people and taking 240 Israelis and foreigners hostage. Of the 134 remaining hostages, Israel recently announced that 31 were dead.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
