The IDF on Monday withdrew from Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza after an intense two-week battle.
One of the most critical components of the IDF’s two week operation to take over Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza from over 1,000 terrorists was the direct participation of the Shayetet 13 special forces unit – Israel’s navy seals.
Although Shayetet 13 has special additional training for combat at sea, it has also been used for decades for special high-profile or precision operations on land.
However, the current war in the first time where Shayetet 13 essentially became an additional long-arm of a regular infantry division, Division 162 commanded by Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen.
After nearly six months of fighting together, Cohen has a fantastic operational relationship now with Col. “A”, the commander of Shayetet 13.
One of Shayetet 13’s early missions in the war, taking over the Qatar-hospital building is now viewed as having emerged as a paradigm shift which became a model for the takeovers of many other Gaza hospitals which terrorists were using as command centers in violation of the laws of war.
This violation was so pronounced during the recent two-week reinvasion of Shifa (the IDF took it over in mid-November the first time) that now top officers do not even refer to Shifa as “Shifa hospital,” but as “the Shifa compound” to reflect their belief that it was not so much an abused hospital, as it was a command center with some hospital camouflage built around it.
IDF sources described how field intelligence from the Shin Bet, Division 162, and from Shayetet 13 itself worked together to track the growing trend of terrorists building a new large command center at Shifa.
The three centers of gravity for the terrorists were: the Qatar facility, the emergency room, and the childbirth center – though there were terrorists in every single one of the sprawling hospital’s buildings.
According to the IDF, they gave the mostly 6,200 civilians and terrorists at least two separate opportunities to surrender.
The IDF preferred to avoid violence and also the “win” of capturing and interrogating Hamas officials to obtain intelligence.
Shayetet 13 was the first into the Shifa area, nailing down and isolating the area in a mere 15 minutes at the start of the operation. The same forces were then the first, after the IDF’s much larger divisional forces reinforced the siege zone, to penetrate the specific hospital buildings where the most Hamas terrorists were expected to be.
According to the IDF, Hamas not only fired mortars at the IDF in disregard of the harm to the hospital buildings, but also used patients and doctors as human shields.
The IDF said that Shayetet 13’s special training could be credited with the success in which they managed to evacuate the patients and doctors without them being harmed, even as they fought off the Hamas terrorists.
These patients and doctors were moved to a pre-setup field hospital.
Moreover, the IDF said that those terrorists who did not surrender fought very hard and several of them exploded themselves with grenades to try to kill nearby IDF forces,
Although no Shayetet 13 soldiers were killed by this, there were six wounded naval commandos, and two more Nahal soldiers were also wounded by these tactics.
There were also some deaths among regular infantry in the fighting in areas nearby Shifa.
The IDF believes that despite the terrorists’ return to Shifa after the first IDF takeover in November, that this recent operation was the most single damaging operation to Hamas of the war, and will prevent them from taking the risk to return to Shifa a third time in any significant numbers.
Still, the IDF said that the war is far from over and that it will need to continue to actively pursue Hamas in a variety of areas once the terror organization regroups.
Palestinian coverage of the Shifa Hospital
Palestinian media reported that the hospital had sustained widespread burning and destruction and had consequently been rendered totally out of service.
More Palestinian media, citing local sources, claimed that the IDF had rendered the hospital entirely out of service by demolishing multiple floors and burning the rest of the facility as well as other buildings in the immediate area.
A week into the operation at Shifa, IDF spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari said that Hamas had fired mortars at the hospital complex. In an update posted on its Telegram channel, Hamas corroborated the statement shortly thereafter.
Meanwhile, the IDF added on Monday that in central Gaza, a combat helicopter had attacked a Hamas military compound that had been booby-trapped against Israeli forces. The IDF noted that terrorists had used the compound to observe IDF troops. The helicopter also struck an additional Hamas compound.
The military went on to note that IAF aircraft used a number of precision strikes to target terror elements in Gaza that posed threats to Israeli troops.
Additionally, IDF Commando troops operating in the Al-Amal area of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza engaged and killed terrorists in close-quarters combat. They also apprehended terrorists and located weapons and explosives during searches of the area.
Separately, a hostile aircraft infiltrated into Israeli territory from Jordan on Sunday night and fell in the area of Eilat, the military said.
The aircraft caused damage to a naval base, but no casualties were reported, the IDF added.
Earlier on Sunday night, hostile aircraft intrusion sirens sounded in Eilat and its surroundings.
According to a Kan News report early Monday morning, Iran-backed Iraqi terrorists took responsibility for the hostile aircraft infiltration.
Late Monday night, the IDF said it had attacked Hezbollah locations at Hanin, Jabal Hamamis, and Ita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon.
For its part, Hezbollah fired rockets at Mount Dov and Manrah. The IDF returned fire at the sources of the rockets.
Earlier Monday, the IDf said it had attacked 10 Hezbollah targets at the same time in Rashia al-Fahr.
Sam Halpern, Jerusalem Post Staff, and Reuters contributed to this article.