Day 70/71 – Intense battles continue across Gaza as more terrorists surrender

Israeli army forces continued battling Hamas terrorists across the Gaza Strip over the weekend, with a focus on the remaining strongholds Jabaliya and Shejaiya in northern Gaza, and the town of Khan Younis in the south.

During a visit to the battle zone on Friday, the head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence praised the troops’ performance.

“The military machine including all components - the Air Force which does an excellent job, the Navy, the intelligence that flows in - is a formidable military system,” said Maj.-Gen. Aharon Haliva.

“Now you ask yourself how the operational achievements will bring us closer to achieving the goals of the war: Continue to press the enemy, continue to kill the enemy, continue to destroy the enemy.”

In northern Gaza, some 90 terrorists surrendered and were detained at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, including some who took active part in the Oct. 7 assault on Israel that started the war.

In the hospital, soldiers of the 460th Armored Brigade and the Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 commando unit discovered rifles, RPGs, explosive devices and other military equipment.

During interrogations with Israel's Shin Bet security agents and soldiers of IDF Intelligence Unit 504, hospital staff admitted that weapons were being stored in incubators in the maternity ward.

The IDF and Shin Bet security agency say that over the last few days, Israeli forces detained some 90 terror operatives at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, and seized numerous weapons.

The joint statement says some of those detained at the hospital, which allegedly… pic.twitter.com/P7vK2X26SE

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) December 16, 2023

“We found a lot of information about the enemy’s use of the hospital facilities for its purposes,” said a Shayetet 13 commander.

In the Shejaiya neighborhood, the battlegroup of the 188th Brigade completed the takeover of the headquarters of Hamas’ Shejaiya battalion, destroying the compound with airstrikes, tank fire, and combat engineering vehicles.

During the fighting, soldiers of the 414th recon battalion made use of the new “Maoz” drone for the first time in combat, exposing and eliminating a terrorist cell in the area.

In the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza, soldiers of the 401st Brigade battlegroup and the Navy’s Shayetet 13 raided two schools that were being used as hideouts by Hamas terrorists, several of whom were eliminated, while others surrendered.

Forces of the 551st Brigade battlegroup directed an airstrike at the roof of a building in Jabaliya from which terrorists were firing at Israeli soldiers. The Israeli Air Force then destroyed the building.

During searches in the northern Gaza Strip, soldiers of the 261st Brigade encountered a trap designed to lure Israeli soldiers to the entry of a system of tunnels by using loudspeakers connected to dolls and children’s bags.

The tunnel system runs between civilian buildings, including a school, a clinic, and a mosque, with a Hamas command room in the center, including cameras connected to the hospital’s electrical infrastructure.

In addition, they found anti-tank and observation posts in the area, as well as a large booby-trapped area designed as a kill zone.

In the southern Gaza Strip, soldiers of the 89th Commando Brigade and the 7th Armored Brigade raided several terrorist infrastructures in the heart of Khan Younis, eliminating numerous terrorists and locating several tunnel shafts.

They located motorcycles that were used by Hamas terrorists in the brutal attack on Oct. 7 in a tunnel shaft and destroyed a weapons warehouse using the new “Iron Sting” mortar.

Soldiers of the 4th Brigade raided several apartments being used as battle positions by Hamas and found many weapons and underground infrastructures.