Says Shifa, schools and other places are being used as shelter
Palestinians check the rubble of destroyed buildings. Pic/AP
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 Defence Forces said on Wednesday morning. 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.
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“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”.
In the last 24 hours, soldiers eliminated terrorists and located terror infrastructure and weapons inside the hospital compound. Since entering the compound Israel has killed over 180 terrorists.
500
No. of Hamas members held from Shifa
Israel, Hamas dig in as pressure builds
Netanyahu has said Israel can only dismantle Hamas and returning scores of hostages if it expands its ground offensive to Rafah, where over half of Gaza’s population has sought refuge. Meanwhile, Hamas says it will hold onto the hostages until Israel agrees to a more permanent ceasefire, withdraws from Gaza and releases Palestinian prisoners, including top militants. It said that it rejected a recent proposal that fell short of those demands, which would allow it to claim victory.
8 killed along Lebanon border
An Israeli airstrike on a paramedics center linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group in south Lebanon killed seven of its members early Wednesday and triggered a rocket attack from Lebanon that killed one person in northern Israel, officials said. The strike on the village of Hebbariye came after a day of airstrikes and rocket attacks between Israel’s military and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group along the Lebanon-Israel border, raising concerns of further escalation along the frontier that has been active for the past five months.
Hezbollah fires more rockets
Around 30 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel on Wednesday morning, according to the Israeli military. Hezbollah took responsibility for the launches and said they were in response to an Israeli airstrike on a paramedic centre linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group in south Lebanon that killed seven of its members overnight.
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