Islamic Jihad Operative Confirms Terror Groups Use Shifa Hospital as Israel Continues Raid

Jerusalem, 27 March, 2024 (TPS) -- Israeli soldiers continued operations against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists holed up in Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital and in Khan Yunis, the Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday morning.

In the last 24 hours, soldiers eliminated terrorists and located terror infrastructure and weapons inside the hospital compound. Since entering the compound on March 18, Israel has killed over 180 terrorists and detained 800 terror suspects, of whom at least 500 have been confirmed as members of the Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups.

Israel returned to the hospital, Gaza’s largest, after receiving intelligence that senior Hamas figures were inside the compound planning attacks.

On Tuesday, the IDF released footage of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative confirming to his interrogator how Hamas and PIJ used hospitals to plan and launch attacks.

“Shifa, or schools and places like that, are our shelter,” Nabeel Rajab Abed Shteiwi, who said he has been involved in PIJ’s missile production since 2012. Shteiwi said he had been living in Shifa for three months.

When asked about the location of the terror group’s headquarters in Shifa, Shteiwi said that PIJ “does not have specific headquarters. They are in all the buildings, scattered everywhere.”

He noted many Hamas operatives use Shifa’s “Specialist Building,” but stressed that this “doesn’t mean that they aren’t in other buildings” too.

“You might see someone who doesn’t look like a nurse, but is dressed in nurse clothes walking around,” Shteiwi said.

In the Al Amal neighborhood of Khan Yunis, soldiers working in coordination with the Air Force eliminated several terrorists. During a targeted raid on terror infrastructure, the troops located and seized weapons including launchers, AK-47 rifles, and grenades.

Over the past day, Israeli aircraft struck dozens of armed Hamas terrorists and tunnel shafts, military compounds and other Hamas infrastructure in the Strip. During one of the strikes, a terrorist was identified adjacent to IDF troops in central Gaza. An aircraft eliminated the terrorist.

At least 1,200 people were killed and 240 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the remaining 134 hostages, Israel recently declared 31 of them dead.