The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has spent the past several days battling Hamas terrorists in northern Gaza who attempted to regroup in the area of Jabaliya, killing dozens of terrorists but losing three reserve soldiers.
Israel has destroyed Hamas’s command structure, including its 24 battalions, but the organization still exists as a guerrilla force, and still holds roughly 100 Israeli hostages. Its leader, Yahya Sinwar, is said to be hiding underground, using Israeli hostages as human shields to prevent the IDF from killing him in an airstrike.
As Breitbart News reported, the IDF announced Sunday that it would renew its offensive in Jabaliya and told residents to evacuate to the south, expanding the humanitarian area and providing safe corridors for their departure.
In a joint statement Thursday by the IDF and Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet, or Shabak) said:
Yesterday (Wednesday), with the precise intelligence direction of the IDF and ISA, the IAF struck terrorists operating from a command and control center embedded within an area that previously served as a medical compound in Jabaliya in the Gaza Strip.
Large quantities of weapons were stored inside the command and control center, and was used by the terrorists to plan and execute terror attacks against IDF troops and the citizens of the State of Israel.
At this time, it can be confirmed that at least 12 terrorists from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations were eliminated in the strike, including the following terrorists:
-Mustafa Abd Al-Aziz, a platoon commander in Hamas’ Military Intelligence Unit.
-Mahmmud Khamis Suleiman Awad, deputy platoon commander at an anti-tank unit in Hamas’ Northern Brigade.
-Bilal Bashir Muhammad Al-Sharafi, a terrorist in the Eastern Jabaliya Battalion of the Hamas Military Wing.
-Saher Farid Muhammad Abu Rashed, a terrorist in the Eastern Jabaliya Battalion of the Hamas Military Wing, took part in the October 7th massacre.
-Karem Salaeh Hassan Abu-Daher, an engineering terrorist operative in the Eastern Jabaliya Battalion of the Hamas Military Wing.
-As’ad Yusuf Saeid Hazaa, a terrorist in the Eastern Jabaliya Battalion of the Hamas Military Wing.
-Saeid Hisar Saeid Sbaba, a terrorist in the Hamas Military Wing.
-Muhammad Ibrahim Ali Bader, a terrorist in the Islamic Jihad Military Wing.
-Amjad Ziad Abed al-Rahman Aziz, a terrorist in the Islamic Jihad Military Wing.
-Ibrahim abu-alJalili, a terrorist in the Eastern Jabaliya Battalion of the Hamas Military Wing.
-Zakaria Hussein Abu-Habal, a Nukhba platoon commander in Hamas’ Eastern Jabaliya Battalion, took part in the October 7th massacre.
-Muhammad Rabee Musbah Arini, a Nukhba platoon commander in Hamas’ Eastern Jabaliya Battalion, took part in the October 7th massacre.
Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information.
The elimination of the terrorists in the area is a further example of the systematic abuse of the civilian population and infrastructure by terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to conduct terrorist activities against IDF troops and the State of Israel.
The IDF also conducted an airstrike on what it described as a Hamas “command and control center” that terrorists had placed inside a former school, near the area of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. “This is a further example of the Hamas terrorist organization’s systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure in violation of international law,” the IDF said.
The Times of Israel noted that the three fallen reservists were Master Sgt. (res.) Ori Moshe Borenstein, 32; Maj. (res.) Netanel Hershkovitz, 37; and Master Sgt. (res.) Tzvi Matityahu Marantz, 32.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
