Posted on 11/09/2023 5:02:16 AM PST by 11th_VA
The Israeli Defense Force said its troops captured a major Hamas stronghold in west Jabaliya, just north of Gaza City, in the early hours of Thursday morning following 10 hours of fighting, as the military meanwhile pushed further into the heart of Gaza City where the terror group is believed to have its underground headquarters.
The IDF said that Nahal Infantry Brigade troops battled Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives in the west Jabaliya stronghold known as Outpost 17, who were both “above ground and in an underground route in the area,” and that dozens of terror operatives were killed in the course of the battle.
Inside Outpost 17, the IDF uncovered “significant” Hamas battle plans, as well as weapons and tunnel shafts, one of which was located adjacent to a kindergarten and led to an “extensive underground route,” the IDF said.
Also on Thursday morning, the IDF announced that it killed a senior Hamas commander responsible for the terror group’s anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) operations in central Gaza.
In a joint statement with the Shin Bet security agency on Thursday, the IDF said that Ibrahim Abu-Maghsib was the head of Hamas’s ATGM array in the so-called central camps brigade and shared video footage of the strike.
“As part of his position, he directed and carried out numerous anti-tank missile launches directed at Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” the statement added.
Inside Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, forces also uncovered a Hamas drone manufacturing plant and weapons depot inside a residential building located next to a school.
Footage shared by the IDF shows troops finding several Hamas drones in the building, as well as equipment used to manufacture them, and instructions to make explosive devices.
Adjacent to the manufacturing site and weapons depot is a children’s bedroom, the IDF said, adding that several bombs were recovered from the site.
The Thursday morning updates from the IDF did not immediately provide any new information on potential casualties among troops during the battle. Overnight, the IDF announced the death of Master Sgt. (res.) Eliahou Benjamin Elmakayes, 29, from Jerusalem.
A soldier of the Combat Engineering Corp’s 8219th Battalion, Elmakayes was killed during fighting in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday, bringing the toll of slain soldiers in Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza to 34, and 352 since October 7.
Additionally, an officer and soldier of the Paratrooper’s 202nd Battalion, a reservist officer of the 551st Brigade’s 697th battalion, and a soldier of the 551st Brigade’s 6551st Battalion were seriously wounded in separate clashes in Gaza yesterday.
As Israel’s ground forces continue to forge a path through the northern Gaza Strip, where fighting rages, the IDF again opened an evacuation corridor for civilians to escape southward.
Arabic-language spokesman Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Israel would open Salah-al-Din Street for southward traffic between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Previous days saw the corridor open for only four hours.
He added that on Wednesday some 50,000 Gazans took advantage of the safe route to head to southern Gaza.
“Do not listen to what some Hamas leaders say from their hotels abroad or from the underground places they have arranged for themselves and their family members,” Adraee warned. “For your safety, take advantage of the [opening of Salah a-Din] to move south, beyond Wadi Gaza.”
Israeli forces advancing from the northwest along the Mediterranean coast have been clashing with fighters inside Shati, a dense neighborhood adjacent to Gaza City’s center, two residents told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The past nights saw heavy strikes of Shati.
Broken palm trees, distorted road signs and twisted lampposts marked the ruins of what was once north Gaza’s main arterial route, an AFP journalist saw while embedded with Israeli soldiers.
Israeli flags were flying over buildings at beach resorts in northern Gaza and there was little sign of any human presence amid the destruction.
Even as the IDF closes in on Hamas hot spots in northern Gaza, a rare delivery of emergency medical supplies reached Al-Shifa Hospital, the UN confirmed overnight.
Israel has presented evidence in recent weeks that Hamas’s main command center is located underneath Shifa and accused the terror group of using the hospital and its occupants — with 1,500 beds and some 4,000 staff — as human shields.
Eyewitness accounts from inside Gaza City recount seeing and hearing Israeli ground forces as they continue to close in from multiple directions. Other reports have said that fighting took place just one kilometer from the perimeter of the hospital.
“At dawn, a shell landed very close to the hospital, but thank God only a few people had minor injuries,” Shifa director-general Mohammed Abu Selmia said. “The conditions here are disastrous in every sense of the word.”
“We’re short on medicine and equipment, and the doctors and nurses are exhausted. … We’re unable to do much for the patients.“
No wonder Obama wants a 'pause'.
Bkmk
Funny, for once the Israelis showed some resolve here, instead of showing weakness, which is what placating the ‘world community’ does. And because of that resolve, you see the countries like the US slowly coming around to RESPECTING Israel, as well as much of the world (even if they won’t say it publicly). Here’s a little timeline:
1. The attack
2. Instant reaction by Blinken: “Don’t retaliate”, quickly scrubbed from X.
3. After 4 days of polling, Biden says: “Given them hell Israel, no limits.”
4. After a few more days, with pro-Hamas people in the foreground: “Well, give them hell, but don’t harm any ‘civilians’ or hostages”
5. At that point Israel is like: “We told them to leave, so if they’re in the way, sorry.”
6. Reaction in secret circles of the White House: “Crap, Israel won’t listen to us this time, now what? Guess we need to shut up.”
7. Now that Israel is actually in Gaza, and actually showing off the tunnels, the threats are no longer ‘hypotheticals’ or ‘wanderings of the Jewish mind’, THEY ARE REAL.
And it was resolve that got them to #7, and I sense (maybe just me, but so be it) that much of the ‘world community’ now understands that Israel’s threats were real, and powerful, and almost certainly helped along by the usual suspects (NGOs, US Leftists, the UN, etc.), and so, yes, perhaps Israel has a legitimate beef here.
“No wonder Obama wants a ‘pause’.”
Well, bummer, because Israel isn’t listening to ANYONE, other than their own people.
Wouldn't it be interesting if the IDF recovers documents/information on what the US did to support Hamas during the Obama administration.
That one we may never know even if the IDF did find something. But if there are, it might cause Obama to go into hiding.
No wonder Obama wants a ‘pause’.”
****
Obama can go to hell, with the REST of the Muslim terrorists.
“Wouldn’t it be interesting if the IDF recovers documents/information on what the US did to support Hamas during the Obama administration.”
It would be surprising if they DO NOT find anything. Obviously, Hamas got a lot of help, and while the Neocons may try to blame Russia and Iran, there was NO SHORTAGE of Israel-hating Western governments playing ball there, claiming to be providing ‘humanitarian assistance’.
But, in the end, it will again come down to the perennial ‘victims’, the Palestinian ‘civilians’. Basically, the West will say that nothing got into Gaza without going through Hamas, and Hamas charged certain ‘taxes’ (as in weapons and weapons parts), so if the West didn’t want the Palestinian ‘civilians’ to starve, they had to also send weapons.
Might as well get ready for that excuse!
I saw a YouTube video a couple days ago showing the logistical route that armaments got to Hamas in Gaza. They load on a ship in Iran. That ship is then sent to Yemen. Then off loaded and then sent by another vessel to Sudan in Africa. Then they are off loaded and trucked north into Egypt. Finally from Egypt they are either mixed in with other non armament shipments or the are smuggled through the tunnels.
So, this is why one of the first things that the IDF captured was the border crossing from Egypt. Not only to stop gasoline and diesel but from other shipments that MAY have armaments mixed in the middle of the load.
No different than when drug smugglers stick kilos of drugs inside the shipments of other materials. I remember seeing units of plywood from Brazil that were hollowed out in the middle full of cocaine. The smugglers could do the same thing with pallets of flour bags.
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