The IDF’s reinvasion of Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza started around 2:30 a.m. early Monday morning and included a mix of IDF Division 162 regular infantry, armor, special forces from the Shayetet 13 navy seals, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), and IDF intelligence collection Unit 504.
Around 20 terrorists were killed, including Hamas Interior Ministry Operations Chief Faack Mabhouh, equivalent to an IDF Brigade Commander and related to Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a former senior Hamas official assassinated by Israel in the UAE in 2010.
Several dozen other terrorists were arrested.
Mabhouh has been in charge of all of Hamas’s internal security forces both during the war and during peacetime, and there were reports that he may have been behind the assassinations of local Gaza Palestinians who were considering cooperating with the IDF.
Israeli forces killed Mabhouh during an exchange of gunfire when he resisted arrest and had been trying to hide within the Shifa complex.
In the room next to his hiding spot, significant Hamas weaponry was located.
Although the IDF said it achieved surprise on a group of terrorists who had returned to Shifa, it said it had both given a general warning to the medical staff there and had been following the return of terrorists for a long time.
More specifically, the IDF said it had planned the operation for a number of days, waiting for the right timing when they could most catch Hamas off guard.
Other than that, this was a time when more terrorists had returned to Shifa, including some commanders, the IDF did not explain why taking over the hospital during Ramadan and heated criticism from the US over the humanitarian situation was smart strategic timing.
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There were no indications from the IDF that any members of the Hamas high command had been killed, wounded or targeted, but Monday morning the IDF said that several or more unidentified Hamas terrorists had been killed – with Mabhouh later appearing to be the most senior.
There were also no indications that any hostages had been freed.
One IDF soldier was killed during the operation, bringing the count of IDF soldiers killed during the Gaza invasion to 250.
Rather, initially, the IDF said it had arrested around 80 persons, some of which are Hamas and that the IDF was working to distinguish who was part of Hamas and who was a civilian or medical staff.
The IDF said that there was no information to indicate that Hamas had used terror tunnels as in November.
Hamas operating from within Shifa Hospital itself
Rather, this time they had stayed within the Shifa buildings themselves.
Operationally, the IDF said it approached several different facilities in the sprawling Shifa complex simultaneously to prevent the terrorists from escaping from any of them.
Shooting took place in multiple different rooms in the complex and there are currently ongoing operations there with the IDF searching room to room for additional concealed terrorists.
Later searches found additional extensive terror funds and weaponry for both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The IDF said it also had and is using drones and special technologies to try to gain military advantages over concealed terrorists.
Further, air force support was nearby to intervene should any Hamas reinforcements try to engage.
The IDF said that Hamas was trying to return Shifa to its status as a Hamas command center.
In December 2023, former Gaza City Shifa Hospital Director Muhammad Abu Salmiya had a hearing before an unidentified Israeli civilian Magistrate’s Court via videoconference in which his detention was extended, sources told The Jerusalem Post at the time.
There has been no update about his status since, including on Monday during an IDF briefing. Israeli security sources said that Abu Salmiya and other cases since the start of the war were taking a long time due to wartime complexities. However, there was no specific explanation why an indictment of Abu Salmiya could not be produced after several months.
Previously, Abu Salmiya was being criminally probed by the Shin Bet under current war emergency regulations relating to Hamas and other terrorists connected to the war.
As part of those regulations, Abu Salmiya had been prevented from meeting with a lawyer at least for a number of weeks.
Though sources did not identify the civilian court, traditionally, the Beersheba courts have handled a variety of Gazan terror cases.
For weeks in November, the Post had only been hinted to informally by some sources that he remained in Shin Bet custody, with the IDF legal division, the Shin Bet, the Justice Ministry, and the police all declining to comment on the record.
The IDF and the Shin Bet announced his arrest on November 23, but since then have given no official update.
Under standard rules in Israeli civilian courts, the state must generally file an indictment within a certain number of days or, in exceptional circumstances, within a few weeks, in order to justify keeping a suspect in detention.
When the IDF took over Shifa in mid-November, it was without firing a shot, partially because the IDF allowed around 200 Hamas terrorists to escape the area along with thousands of civilians, before it went in.
Despite that restraint, the IDF and Israel were lambasted for taking over the hospital and allegedly causing the death of many infants and other patients by virtue of the siege itself hampering medical operations.
Israel has also been attacked in general for taking over hospitals in Gaza.
It has responded by saying it has no choice when Hamas systematically uses hospitals as command centers.
The IDF has added that it still uses restrictive rules of engagement in hospital areas.
The Israeli forces who entered the area received special training and were briefed in advance about the importance of avoiding harm to patients, civilians, medical staff, and medical equipment. Arabic speakers accompanied the forces in order to facilitate dialogue with the patients at the hospital. Patients and staff are not being ordered to evacuate.
The IDF and Shin Bet said later that they were working together in the hospital, adding that while Israeli forces were encircling the complex, terrorists hiding in the hospital fired at the forces.
The IDF continuing humanitarian efforts in the area
The IDF said it will continue humanitarian efforts in the area, bringing food, water, and medical supplies to the hospital. IDF doctors are present as well to provide assistance.
“Our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza,” stressed Hagari. “We seek no harm to the civilians that Hamas is hiding behind.”
Palestinian media reported intensive armed clashes between Palestinian terrorists and Israeli forces in the hospital complex shortly before the IDF statement was published.
“The IDF will continue to act in accordance with international law and against the Hamas terrorist organization – which operates from hospitals and civilian infrastructure in a systematic and cynical way, without the distinction between the civilian population and the organization’s terrorists,” said the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
The head of the Defense Ministry’s Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) for Gaza spoke with the director of the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry in recent days about the activities of Hamas terrorists in Shifa, warning him that these operations must stop.
“We have warned of these activities in the past and see that the Hamas terror organization is continuing its military activity inside hospitals and that there are terror operatives in the heart of hospitals,” said the CLA head. “I have told you before and I will tell you again, we are willing to provide any humanitarian aid needed, be it gas, food supplies, medical supplies, and medicine – to help with the operation of the hospitals – just as we have done in the past.”
Dr. Youssef Abu Rish told the CLA head “I promise you we are on the same page.”
“Hospitals need to be places that provide services, and no one should harm the patients of the provision of the medical services inside these hospitals,” added Abu Rish.
Besides the Shifa Operation, the IDF said there were no other operations in Gaza on Monday.
In the North, overnight between Sunday and Monday, Israeli fighter jets struck a Hezbollah military structure and an observation post in the area of Ramyah in Lebanon, the IDF reported.
Hezbollah fired a small number of rockets on Israel and there was also an alleged drone infiltration. No injuries were reported.
On Sunday, the IDF struck additional Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in the area of Naqoura in Lebanon.
The goals of the operation
"In our joint operation in Shefa, we succeeded in surprising the enemy and creating conditions for its swift defeat,” the IDF confirmed in a statement.
The operation, which was led by Brigade 162 and GOC Army Headquarters 401 in cooperation with Unit 13 and the Shin Bet, “demonstrates exceptional multi-arm cooperation,” the IDF said. “We are now continuing to operate in the hospital area, neutralizing terrorists, locating weapons caches, and targeting terror infrastructure.
"We prepared for this activity for a long time, with a meticulous preparation process for a special and complex operation like this. [We are] proud of our fighters and commanders whose performance that night enabled us to reach the hospital while surprising the enemy and seizing control of the space quickly."
Shortly after Unit 13 spread through the area of Shifa hospital, “combat forces from Division 401 arrived and quickly secured the Shefa hospital area to provide… defense for the complex operation.
“Battalion 52 led secured [the area] with tanks at high speed and provided defense for the forces inside and for additional forces in GOC Army Headquarters, preventing terrorists from escaping.
“In this operation, operatives were captured who are undergoing interrogation and assisting in the continuation of the operation. Meanwhile, GOC Army Headquarters 401's fire forces are identifying terrorists posing a threat to our forces from the air, and so far, more than 20 terrorists have been eliminated.
"We came here to apprehend the terrorists who participated, executed, and planned the massacre in the surrounding settlements on 7/10. We did not come to harm the patients; we came to capture the terrorists."