Israel captures 100 Hamas fighters in hospital raid as footage shows elite IDF forces storming ‘terrorist stronghold’

Israeli soldiers have captured about 100 suspected Hamas militants during a raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, the IDF claimed today as it released first-person images of its forces storming the facility.

In the intense clip, soldiers from Shayetet 13 – an elite Israeli reconnaissance unit – could be seen approaching the building alongside tanks and armored vehicles before walking through hospital corridors in search of Hamas fighters.

The clip did not show the soldiers detaining militants or medical personnel, but ended with an inspection of what appeared to be a weapons cache uncovered in a hospital room.

Health officials in Gaza and Hamas denied that militants were present at the hospital, protesting that Israeli forces had detained dozens of vital male medical staff while the hospital was already struggling to function.

But the IDF said this was necessary because Hamas had disguised some people identified as militants as hospital staff.

“The soldiers apprehended approximately 100 terrorists from the compound, including terrorists who tried to escape during the evacuation of civilians,” the IDF said.

‘In the hospital they found weapons, terrorist funds and intelligence documents.

“Some of the fully identified terrorists disguised themselves as medical personnel, so we had no other alternative but to check the medical personnel as well,” an IDF official said at a briefing this morning.

Images distributed by Gaza’s health ministry on Saturday – which Reuters could not immediately verify – showed damage to several buildings after Israeli forces withdrew.

The military official said troops caused limited damage to the hospital as they entered the hospital and that soldiers also had to destroy what he described as “dual use” equipment, such as oxygen tanks, which, if detonated, could kill anyone in the hospital. complex could have caused damage.

Medical staff members refused to evacuate the hospital or leave their patients unattended.

Hundreds of displaced Palestinians had also taken shelter there.

‘They evacuated all those sheltering here… They separated men from women and made two queues. It was very humiliating for our men because they took them without clothes and without cover,” said Mayssoun Alian, a hospital nurse.

The military official said suspected arrested Hamas men were stripped naked to check them for weapons.

“After checking them, we provided them with clothes,” he said.

Gaza medics said at least two children in intensive care had died after Israeli fire hit the generators and oxygen station at the facility on Friday.

The IDF disputed the claims, saying civilians were kept safe at the hospital despite heavy fighting near the complex.

Fuel, medical equipment and blood units had been delivered to the hospital and electricity and oxygen supplies had been assured, the hospital said.

After storming the Kamal Adwan hospital, Israeli tanks pushed deeper into two northern Gaza towns and a historic refugee camp this morning.

About 100,000 civilians are now trapped there, the Palestinian emergency services said, during what the army said were operations to root out regrouping Hamas militants.

The Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry said at least 19 people were killed today by Israeli airstrikes and bombings, including 13 in the north of the shattered coastal area.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were stranded in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies – although the number could not be independently verified.

The emergency service said its operations had come to a standstill due to the three-week Israeli assault on the north, an area where the army said it had wiped out viable Hamas forces earlier in the year-long war.

As US, Egypt and Qatar-led talks to reach a ceasefire resumed on Sunday after several failed attempts, Egypt’s president proposed an initial two-day ceasefire to exchange four Israeli hostages from Hamas for several Palestinian prisoners, followed by talks within ten days. days on a permanent ceasefire.

There was no public comment from Israel or Hamas, which accuse each other of maintaining incompatible conditions for ending the war.

Northern Gaza was the first part of the enclave to be targeted by Israel’s ground offensive on the territory following Hamas’ cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, during which intensive bombing largely flattened cities such as Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.

Nevertheless, Hamas-led militants continue to attack Israeli forces in hit-and-run operations with anti-tank rockets, mortar salvos and bombs placed in buildings, streets and other areas where they expect Israeli forces to take up positions.

The war broke out after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli allies.

The death toll from Israel’s retaliatory air and ground attacks in Gaza has reached 43,020, Gaza’s Health Ministry said in an update on Monday, leaving the densely populated enclave largely in ruins.