Hamas terror infrastructure found in Gaza university, mosque

(JNS) — Israeli forces on the ground in Gaza continue to find Hamas terrorist infrastructure located within civilian sites, including at Al-Quds University and the Abu Bakr Mosque, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday.

Israeli forces uncovered a section of the mosque housing a large number of explosive devices and flammable materials, according to the IDF. Soldiers also confiscated dozens of weapons, military equipment and Hamas operational plans.

IDF troops also found a “large number of weapons” inside the children’s room of the home of a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist. 

During operational activity in Beit Hanoun in the northeastern Gaza Strip, IDF troops located a tunnel shaft, Hamas intelligence materials and weapons.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said during his regular evening press briefing on Sunday that “troops continue to strike the Hamas strongholds in the heart of the Shati Camp and to deepen the raids in the heart of Gaza City.”

Hagari also said that a total of 20 Hamas terrorists have been arrested and brought to Israel for questioning, including men involved in the Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis in the northwestern Negev. The arrests were made in cooperation with IDF troops, coordinators from the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504.

The names of two more IDF soldiers killed in action in the northern Gaza Strip were published on Monday: Maj. Issachar Natan, 28, from Kiryat Malachi; and

Maj. Issachar Natan, 28, from Kiryat Malachi.

At least 48 soldiers have been killed in action in Gaza and at the Lebanon border since the start of the Gaza ground operation on Oct. 27; 363 Israeli soldiers have died since the war started.

The IDF said on Monday that Israeli air and ground forces have so far conducted 4,300 strikes in Gaza, including on hundreds of anti-tank missile launch posts, 300 tunnel shafts, 3,000 terrorist infrastructure sites, more than 100 structures rigged with explosives, and hundreds of Hamas command and control centers.

An Israel Navy unit that specializes in complex underwater missions has located dozens of weapons, explosives, and other equipment off the coast of Gaza, the IDF disclosed on Monday.

The IDF said the finds made by the navy’s Yaltam unit were the remains of attempts by Hamas to infiltrate Israel by sea.

Yaltam specializes in locating and disabling bombs underwater.

“We’re finding a lot of weapons in the water in dangerous conditions. Each examination of each specific location takes time,” a Yaltam officer was quoted saying in footage released by the IDF.

Items found below the water or floating on the surface include explosive devices, bomb belts, ammunition, grenades, the remains of inflatable boats and even a shoulder-fired missile.

Explosive devices were carefully brought ashore and destroyed in controlled detonations or neutralized at sea.

As Israeli forces close in on the main Hamas headquarters located underneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the United States has conveyed to the IDF its concern about civilians getting caught in the crossfire.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the CBS News program “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the United States “does not want to see firefights in hospitals where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, are caught in the crossfire. And we’ve had active consultations with the Israel Defense Forces on this.”

Israel has publicized safe evacuation routes from Gaza’s largest medical complex and is assisting in the evacuations, including of infants. The IDF has provided documentation of its attempt to provide fuel for the hospital, which was blocked by Hamas.

“In the last 24 hours, the IDF delivered 300 liters of fuel to the Shifa Hospital’s doorstep, yet the fuel remains untouched after Hamas threatened hospital staff,” IDF International Spokesman Lt. Col. (res.) Peter Lerner tweeted on Monday morning.

“In the last 24 hours, the IDF delivered 300 liters of fuel to the Shifa Hospital’s doorstep, yet the fuel remains untouched after Hamas threatened hospital staff.”

Kan News on Sunday also showed video documentation of Hamas terrorists brutally beating Gaza civilians attempting to take food from a humanitarian aid truck in southern Gaza last weekend. The Hamas terrorists took the food for themselves.

Sullivan acknowledged Israeli efforts to protect hospital patients “while they also try to figure out a way to try to deal with the fact that Hamas is operating in a way that is outside the bounds of any civilized concept of how you would think about using a hospital, using human shields.”

Israel has provided evidence that Hamas’s main headquarters is located at Shifa. Sullivan appeared to back this assertion during the interview, saying that “without getting into intelligence information, we can just look at the open source reporting that Hamas is using hospitals as it uses many facilities for command-and-control, for weapons storage, to house its fighters, and this is a violation of the laws of war.”