IDF In Gaza Pursuing Deadly Terrorism

"The strike eliminated terrorists who had planned to carry out terror attacks and advance imminent terror schemes against our forces."

"Many steps were taken before the strike to minimize the risk of harm to uninvolved people [including analyzing aerial footage and making use of precise intelligence]."

Israel Defense Forces statement

Youths inspect damage to a storage container that was hit by an Israeli strike at the Asmaa school, run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), in Gaza City's Shati refugee camp, June 7, 2024. The IDF says a Hamas cell was operating from the container. (Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP)

A compound  within a United Nations school located in central Gaza saw the usual Hamas formula being played out with Hamas operatives using a school, generally viewed by the international community as being off limits to any kind of military operations, for their own purposes, of shielding themselves from direct confrontation with the Israeli military using school pupils, and in this particular instance, Palestinian internally displaced citizens who were sheltering at the school as human shields. 

The Israel Defense Forces has, over time, and experience with Hamas subterfuge and its deliberate endangerment of its own civilian population, established protocols of its own in dealing with the imminent threat posed by the terrorists while at the same time doing its utmost to prevent if at all possible in conditions of conflict, collateral damage from military actions that have the potential to injure or take the lives of men, women and children not engaged in combat.

 

A UN school housing displacing Palestinians that was hit by an Israeli strike in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on June 6, 2024. The IDF said it hit a compound where Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were gathered, killing many of them. (Bashar Taleb/AFP)

 

There are, as usual two conflicting versions of what came next. The IDF explained its precautions taken in an effort to reduce any harm to civilians with the use of its "precise strike" on  a compound embedded within a UNRWA school in Nuseirat. Its target was between twenty to thirty terrorists known to be sheltering at the compound, among them participants in the October 7 invasion and slaughter that took place in southern Israel on October 7. 

 

These terrorists, known to have been involved in that singular atrocity must face justice and the kind of justice meted out ensures they pay the ultimate penalty.

While the members of the terror groups were gathered in three classrooms held separately from the areas where civilians displaced by the war were sheltered, they were struck and killed. The media office of Hamas made claim to 27 people having been killed in an Israeli "massacre". The number of those who were reported dead, according to UNRWA's communications director, was held to be between 35 and 45; the actual numbers unconfirmed, the individual admitted.

The IDF identified the Hamas Nukhba force involved at the school, known to have taken part in the October 7 massacre of Israelis. They, as well as members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad "directed terror attacks from the area of the school, while exploiting it as a civilian location and as shelter", the army further explained. The strike in question was fine-tuned with the intention of avoiding harm to civilians, and as such had been twice postponed.

 

A graphic issued by the IDF in the aftermath of a strike at the Asmaa school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), in the Shati camp west of Gaza City on June 7, 2024. The IDF says a Hamas cell was operating from the container (Israel Defense Forces)

 

That Hamas uses schools, UN offices and other civilian infrastructures such as mosques and hospitals where it is known that civilians take shelter, is a well-established reality. As the governing body of the Gaza Strip, Hamas is not held accountable for the dire harm it brings to the Palestinians dependent on the terrorist group for security, yet the target of Hamas's lethal campaign against Jews and Israel, is held accountable by the international community for the outcome of a situation where Hamas deliberately places its own population in harm's way for propaganda purposes.

 

What is even more difficult to digest, is the resounding success Hamas realizes from its slanderous propaganda holding Israel accountable for all the human suffering that Hamas alone, along with other Palestinian terrorist groups, is responsible for. 

 

The ancient curse of the Jews exemplified by the Phoenix-like flare ups of antisemitism is reawakened by terrorist-dominated public relations aimed at the West whose legacy media, government agencies, academic institutions and unions weigh accounts emanating from terrorists as equal in credibility to those coming from a democracy whose system of laws and strict adherence to human rights responsibilities reflect their own.

 

A graphic issued by the IDF on June 7, 2024, shows eight Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, in addition to nine previously identified, whom the army says it killed in a June 6, 2024 airstrike on a UN school in central Gaza’s Nuseirat (Israel Defense Forces)

"The Egregious Breach of Fundamental Principles of Humanity"

"In both Kibbutz Be'eri and Kibbutz Kfar Azza, as well as a the site of the Nova Music Festival in Re'im, I witnessed scenes of calculated cruelty."

"[I will work in partnership with victims' families] as part of our ongoing work to hold those responsible to account."

"[The Israel Defense Forces] has trained lawyers who advise commanders, and a robust system intended to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law."

"Conflict in densely populated areas where fighters are alleged to be unlawfully embedded in the civilian population is inherently complex, but international humanitarian law must still apply and the Israeli military knows the law that must be applied."

"As I have repeatedly emphasized, civilians must have access to basic food, water and desperately needed medical supplies, without further delay, and at pace and at scale."

"And when such aid arrives, it must not be diverted or misused by Hamas."

International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan

Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan visits a Gaza border town massacred by Hamas, on December 3, 2023. (Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum)

 

In 2015 the Palestinian Authority declared its acceptance of the ICC jurisdiction when it appealed to the court to investigate the PA's allegations of Israel committing crimes against Palestinians. The crimes being, of course, the IDF's vigilance against and interception of when possible, violence by Palestinians urged on by the PA's frequent declarations of the need for Palestinians to 'resist' the 'occupation'; an 'occupation' necessitated by the requirement of self-protection from such lethal attacks.

Not only does the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas incite Palestinians to violence, praising them as martyrs and offering financial upkeep to families of 'martyrs' and to prisoners in Israeli jails who have committed terrorist acts, it also publishes school curricula for children at every grade level replete with scurrilous descriptions of Jews and warnings that Israel means to kill them, and it is their obligation to strike first.

Israel, on the other hand, with its experience as the perpetual target of Palestinian 'victimhood' and 'rage' and 'intifadas', along with its negative status in the United Nations, as well as previous ICC spokespeople and investigators, had no wish to accept the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction over the "situation in Palestine". Yet families of some of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas terrorists into Gaza to be tormented and tortured and to serve as pawns in prisoner exchanges, appealed to the ICC to inspect the deadly carnage in the aftermath of the Hamas atrocities.

The result was that Karim Ahmad Khan, the ICC chief prosecutor, toured the aftermath sites of the three most heavily attacked southern Israel areas on October 7, and concluded from the evidence and his own inspection that the Hamas slaughter represents "some of the most serious international crimes that shock the conscience of humanity". The consciences of ordinary Palestinian citizens in Gaza, however were exempt from shock; they chose to celebrate the 'victory' Hamas brought to Gaza in the form of injured and frightened Israeli children, teens, women, the elderly and soldiers.

 

The chief prosecutor called for the "immediate and unconditional" release of the estimated 137 hostages remaining in captivity under Hamas, taking pains to cite "the egregious breach of fundamental principles of humanity through the taking and continued holding of children". He met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah where ways were discussed to "deepen our co-operation under the Rome Statute [ICC's founding charter]".

Handout picture provided by the Palestinian Press Office (PPO) shows Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas (CR) meeting with the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan (CL) in Ramallah in the West Bank on December 2, 2023. (Photo by Thaer GHANAIM / PPO / AFP)

Searching Gaza for Hamas Terrorists

"Each and every interrogation leads to the release of new locations and the human intelligence that emerges from the Gaza Strip."

"More than ten out of these 24 battalions [were] damaged significantly. In some battalions, we eliminated hundreds of Hamas terrorists."

"This can't be replaced (Hamas commanders killed in battle) in a war."

"[The number of rockets fired at Israel is decreasing, reaching] nearly zero. [Hamas still has firepower, however, and] if we want to take it, we have to go to the south [of Gaza]."

Senior Israeli military official speaking anonymously under army guidelines 

Footage released by the IDF on November 20, 2023, of an interrogation of a Gazan terror suspect by the Shin Bet security service. (Screen capture/IDF)

 

According to new revelations by the Israeli military, over 300 members of Hamas and other terrorist groups arrested in Gaza during the Israel Defense Forces ground invasion have been interrogated. Those interrogations have  yielded invaluable intel, including revelations of locations of underground tunnels, warehouses, weapons and the use of civilian infrastructure by Hamas.

The vast underground command complex centre beneath the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza is of particular interest to the invading forces, since it is reputed to be the locale, hidden among the most vulnerable of places in wartime, a vast hospital complex, where vital command centres for the terrorists have been installed, shielded from view and presumably from attack during war.

Although Hamas, as well as Gaza health officials deny that Hamas has any positions installed within and beneath the hospital complex, intel says otherwise, and the forays by the IDF into and under the hospital have proven intel right and Hamas deceptive. Videos have been revealed from closed-circuit cameras showing Hamas operatives hustling Israeli hostages into and through the hospital.

 

Hamas terrorists bring a hostage into Shifa Hospital as seen on surveillance footage from October 7, 2023. (IDF)

 

According to the anonymous official, his intelligence unit has had thousands of telephone calls from residents of Gaza. Although no details were forthcoming, ostensibly to inform the IDF intelligence of information that might be useful in finding the sought-after evidence of Hamas duplicity in carrying out war crimes against its own population. 

The human intelligence unit of the Israeli army, Unit 504, placed thousands of calls to Gaza residents and dropped millions of leaflets to alert and urge the Palestinians to evacuate to the territory's southern area as long as Israeli forces continue to target buildings in northern Gaza. There was a battle between Israeli forces and terrorists in the vicinity of a second hospital Monday, where thousands of patients and displaced residents have sheltered for weeks. IDF troops returned fire from Hamas fighters firing on them from within the 3.5-acre hospital compound.

Since the start of the war, over ten of Hamas's battalions sustained significant degradation. The battalion represents the main Hamas army unit, with roughly a thousand operatives in each. The IDF estimates that thousands of Hamas terrorists have been killed in the Israeli offensive. Most battalions are located in northern Gaza. A large number of Hamas commanders have also been killed; some battalions with over half their commanders gone.

In northern Gaza, Hamas's main rocket arsenals are concentrated. "We're approaching the end of our campaign in northern Gaza to root out Hamas infrastructure and will turn to the rest of the Gaza Strip", explained Eylon Levy, spokesman for the Israeli government. The main thrust of the ground offensive so far has been east into Gaza City, the Hamas "centre of gravity".

Many parts of the city's largest hospital, Al Shifa, are in control of Israeli forces. Videos were found over the weekend giving proof of Hamas's exploitation of the facility, where a command centre had been built, and a network of tunnels constructed under the ground.

IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari with weapons found by IDF forces in a Hamas command center underneath Gaza City’s Rantisi Hospital, in a photo released by the military on November 13, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)