Over 350 have been caught in the hospital raid and are being interrogated; so far, 90 terrorists and two IDF soldiers have been killed.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
The IDF’s second raid into Shifa Hospital has resulted in a “gold mine” of information from the first of over 350 Hamas terrorists captured in the incursion so far, an army source told Army Radio Wednesday.
Many of the terrorists reportedly surrendered without a fight. The IDF has cleared out a corridor in the hospital as a temporary holding cell so that they can be interrogated on site and their information used promptly against their colleagues.
A Shabak internal security official elaborated to the press separately that because intelligence coordinators and investigators are working so closely with the army there, they can immediately pass on information extracted from the terrorists about the location of enemy forces as well as crucial infrastructure such as communications equipment.
“They are providing a lot of valuable intelligence,” the official said.
Those captured included Gaza Brigade Commander Izz a-Din al-Haddad.
More than 160 terrorists have been brought for further interrogation into Israel by the Shabak.
Searches of the hospital have uncovered folders full of IDF data stolen by Hamas terrorists from the Erez Crossing during their invasion of October 7.
Weapons such as Kalashnikov rifles, dozens of magazines of bullets and rocket propelled grenades, as well as bundles upon bundles of Israeli cash, have also been found.
Some 90 terrorists have been killed in the firefights that developed since early Monday morning. The elite Shayetet 13 commandos darted into the medical compound together with forces of the 401st Brigade, and a battalion each from the Givati and Nahal Brigades and the armored corps.
The most senior of these was Fa’ak Mabhouh, the head of the Hamas Internal Security Operations department. The IDF said that he had been responsible for synchronizing Hamas systems in the Strip.
Of the Israeli forces, reservist Warrant Officer Sebastian Haion (51), a commander in the 401st brigade, and Staff Sgt. Matan Vinogradov (20) of the Nahal’s 932nd Battalion, were killed in the action.
This brings the number of IDF soldiers killed in Gaza to 252.
The IDF’s first raid into Shifa took place in November. Interrogated terrorists said they had come back to use the hospital as a center of operations because they felt it was safe to do so.
The army allowed the hospital to continue providing medical services to the Gazan population after it had cleared Hamas operatives out and disabled the terror tunnels running underneath it.
The tunnels were later destroyed.
During the current raid, the soldiers are allowing staff and patients to stay, and have provided medical and other humanitarian aid as well.