Israeli troops have cleared significant areas in the center of Gaza City that were the military headquarters of Hamas, the IDF announced on Thursday afternoon.
Soldiers from the Givati Brigade, along with the 162nd Armored Division and special forces, raided the military quarter which is situated near the Shifa Hospital and managed to kill 50 Hamas members during fierce combat. Israeli forces also secured and neutralized a wide underground network of tunnels.
Israeli forces found Hamas military intelligence documents and destroyed several significant underground tunnel access points, factories for the production of anti-tank missiles, and anti-aircraft rocket launch posts."We have killed several Hamas commanders of anti-tank battalions," IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm Daniel Hagari said Thursday night.
What exactly is in the military quarter of Gaza City?
The military quarter of Gaza City consists of strategic Hamas installations, including the central intelligence headquarters as well as Hamas government offices, including the Interior Ministry.
The area also contains the largest training facilities in Gaza for urban warfare, military outposts, warehouses, and various munitions factories which have been used to produce rockets, anti-tank missiles, UAVs, and other weapons.
Hamas military installations hidden throughout Gaza's civilian population
As the IDF has documented throughout Gaza, these military installations are located under or close to civilian facilities such as schools, kindergartens, medical clinics, and mosques. The IDF and Israel Security Services have released documentation of Hamas terrorists admitting that tunnels and operation rooms are located under hospitals, including the Shifa Hospital.The IDF also announced on Thursday that it had found a rocket and drone production site in the middle of a residential building and close to schools in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza.