Israel says it has arrested hundreds of terrorism suspects in Gaza
The Israeli military said Thursday that it had apprehended hundreds of people suspected of terrorism, including wanted Hamas operatives, in the Gaza Strip in a single day and that many had surrendered and been taken to Israel for further questioning.
Vice Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesman, said in a televised briefing that many of the suspects interrogated by the military and the Shin Bet domestic security service had handed themselves over to Israeli forces.
“The information we gather from the interrogations helps us in the ongoing battle,” he said.
The announcements of the surrenders and arrests came shortly after photos and videos emerged on social media showing rows of men stripped to their underwear, sitting or kneeling on the ground, some bound and blindfolded.
The New York Times has not verified the images or the video. Admiral Hagari did not answer directly when asked about the images, but reiterated the Israeli military’s goal to find and capture Hamas operatives.
“They hide underground and come out and we fight them,” Admiral Hagari said. Some, he added, “come from tunnel shafts and others from houses. We interrogate and investigate which of them is connected to Hamas and who is not. We will detain them all and interrogate them.”
Another military spokesman, Major Nir Dinar, said the army had not released the images and did not know when or if Israeli soldiers took them.
The Israeli army said in a statement that troops had arrested hundreds of people suspected of involvement in terrorism over the past day during fighting in Shejaiya and Jabaliya, Hamas strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip, and Khan Younis, another Hamas bastion in southern Gaza. the Palestinian enclave.
In addition, the military said an army intelligence unit and the Shin Bet worked together on Thursday to arrest another 150 terrorism suspects, including Hamas operatives, from the Jabaliya refugee camp area and that they were interrogated in Gaza. The military had previously stated that its human intelligence unit was operating an interrogation facility in Gaza.
Since the beginning of the ground invasion of Gaza in late October, Israel has arrested hundreds of Palestinians, including the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip. Israel has claimed that Hamas used the hospital as a command and control center. The army has uncovered a section of tunnel that runs under the hospital complex.
Admiral Hagari added that Israeli forces advanced on Thursday and intensified the battle against Hamas strongholds in northern and southern Gaza, killing senior commanders hiding in underground tunnels and destroying Hamas infrastructure.
The military said Thursday it had killed a senior Hamas operative in an airstrike a few days ago that hit Hamas’ central intelligence command center. The agent, it said, is Abdel Aziz Rantisi, of Hamas’s military intelligence unit, who the military said was responsible for field intelligence in the strip and had helped plan the October 7 attack in southern Israel.
The military said its forces have engaged in close combat in recent days, killing “dozens” of armed officers, and locating and destroying weapons and underground infrastructure, “mainly located in and near civilian buildings.” ”, as well as rocket launchers and tunnel shafts, including one in a school in Shejaiya.
It was not possible to independently verify Israel’s account of the fighting.
Also on Thursday, an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanese territory into northern Israel killed an Israeli civilian. Israel said it responded to that attack and additional launches from Lebanon with tank and artillery fire, and airstrikes on targets including what the army described as a command and control center of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite organization.