..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...turbans who surrendered in the Shaboura neighborhood of Rafah, according to military footage released Tuesday.
Among those captured were a Hamas platoon commander who participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and was involved in the holding of Israeli hostages, as well as a sniper unit commander. Several knives were reportedly found in their possession.
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) obtained significant intelligence during the subsequent interrogations, including the location of a major Hamas terror site in the area.
The arrests came after the IDF completed its encirclement of Rafah several weeks ago. Military operations in the city are ongoing and are expected to expand into additional neighborhoods.
To date, the 188th Brigade's combat team has eliminated dozens of turbans and uncovered and destroyed multiple Hamas weapons caches and other infrastructure.
Likud MK Tally Gotliv on Tuesday expressed frustration over stalled hostage negotiations and voiced support for the government's recent military decisions.
''The Israeli government gave Hamas every opportunity to return all of our hostages, both living and deceased,'' Gotliv told JNS. ''But Hamas has entrenched itself in cruelty and rejected every proposal put forward during the negotiations.''
| The Times of Israel names the miscreants: |
The second is identified as Muhammad Zaarab, a commander in a Hamas sniper unit.
Hamas-linked Gaza rescuers say 9 killed in new Israeli strike on school sheltering displaced
[IsraelTimes] Gaza’s Hamas-linked civil defense agency says that nine people were killed in a fresh Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the center of the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“Nine dead and dozens of injuries in a new airstrike that targeted the northern side of Abu Humeisa School, which shelters displaced people in Al-Bureij camp,” Ahmad Radwan, a media officer from the Hamas-linked Gaza civil defense, tells AFP after rescuers said an earlier Israeli strike on the same site killed 22.
IDF says strike targeted Hamas operatives at command post in central Gaza
[IsraelTimes] The IDF says it carried out an airstrike against a group of Hamas operatives at a command center in the central Gaza Strip a short while ago.
Palestinian media reports that the strike hit a school in the Bureij area, which was used as a shelter for displaced Gazans, killing at least 18 people.
According to the military, the site was being used by Hamas to store weapons intended to be used in attacks on IDF troops and Israeli civilians.