Dramatic footage released Friday showed Israel Defense Forces soldiers confronting Hamas terrorists inside a school — as the country’s defense minister vowed that the group’s grip on the Gaza Strip was finally “beginning to break.”
Members of the elite LOTAR Unit, along with the 74th Battalion of the 188th Armored Brigade, discovered a Hamas cell in the remains of a school building in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.
IDF fighters are seen chasing terrorists through the building in a tense, bullet-riddled standoff, IDF clips show.
“The terrorists tried to lure the troops into an ambush, with gunfire and explosives, and were eliminated by LOTAR Unit soldiers and 74th Battalion tank fire,” the IDF said of the incident.
The army later searched the school and found a tunnel shaft in one of the classrooms, the Times of Israel added, citing the IDF.
The tunnel – which connects to a nearby mosque – is allegedly used by Hamas operatives.
Israeli troops met Hamas terrorists at a school in Gaza City, a dramatic new video from the IDF shows. Israel Defense Forces
The intense footage was released shortly after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attended a Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony with soldiers of the Border Defense Corps’ Caracal Battalion, the Times of Israel added.
After more than two months of war, Israel saw “signs that indicate [Hamas] started breaking out in Gaza,” Gallant said, according to the outlet.
The IDF released dramatic footage of elite LOTAR Unit soldiers fighting Hamas operatives at a school in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.
According to the IDF, soldiers of the 74th Battalion of the 188th Armored Brigade, along with LOTAR soldiers, found a Hamas cell when… pic.twitter.com/gZZrWwDtlz
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) December 8, 2023
He also paid special respect to the female members of the IDF, since the Caracal Battalion is a mixed-gender unit.
“It is impossible to ignore the presence of strong, prominent and successful women [in the war]. Women have not actually fought in the IDF since 1948, this is the first time this has happened, after 75 years, in a large-scale battle,” he told the soldiers.
The Israeli army has been pursuing Hamas in Gaza since an estimated 3,000 terrorists stormed southern Israel and unleashed a nightmarish wave of violence that killed some 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7.
Video footage shows a unit of elite fighters confronting terrorists inside the school. Israel Defense Forces
A week-long ceasefire last month saw the release of more than 100 civilian hostages that had been taken on October 7 — but fighting continued as Israeli and Hamas negotiators clashed over an ongoing hostage release order.
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On Friday evening local time, warning sirens sounded over Tel Aviv – indicating that rockets fired from the Gaza Strip were threatening the center of the small country, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The Iron Dome, Israel’s mobile air defense system, intercepts rockets in the night sky, according to a video shared by Times of Israel reporter Emmanuel Fabian on X.
Also on Friday, Israel confirmed that the army was rounding up Palestinian men in northern Gaza for questioning as it searches for Hamas militants.
The confirmation came a day after images emerged showing what appeared to be dozens of men stripped and kneeling or sitting in the streets of the town of Beit Lahiya.
Israeli forces are reportedly detaining men and boys as young as 15 in a school that has been converted into a shelter, according to United Nations monitors.
Israelis rush to shelters as sirens warn of incoming rockets in Tel Aviv on Dec. 8, 2023. AP
The group were “military-aged men who were found in an area where civilians were supposed to have been evacuated a few weeks ago,” Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said on Friday.
More Hamas operatives are also beginning to surrender to the IDF, military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, according to the Times of Israel.
“We are engaged in a fierce battle with Hamas terrorists, who are hiding underground. We killed many terrorists, and saw more and more terrorists surrender in battle and surrender themselves to our forces,” he said.
People move rubble near a mosque destroyed by Israeli strikes in central Gaza. Reuters
In the past 48 hours, the IDF arrested more than 200 suspects in Gaza, Hagari added.
“Dozens of them have been handed over for questioning by Unit 504 of the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet in Israel, including Hamas commanders and Nukhba operatives,” he explained.
In central Gaza, Israeli planes dropped leaflets on refugee camps in Nuseirat and Maghazi on Friday.
“To the leaders of Hamas: Life for life, eye for eye and whoever starts to blame. If you punish, then punish according to what has been inflicted on you,” the paper read, which combines verses from the Quran and similar readings from the Old Testament.
People ran into underground parking as a barrage of rockets rang out over Tel Aviv on Dec. 8. 2023. Getty Images
Meanwhile, in New York, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss what it described as a “catastrophic situation” in the Gaza Strip, where at least 17,000 people are believed to have been killed in retaliatory bombing.
The meeting follows UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ move earlier this week to invoke the rarely used Article 99 of the UN Charter to demand a permanent ceasefire.
“There is no possible excuse for deliberately killing some 1,200 people, including 33 children, injuring thousands more and taking hundreds hostage,” Guterres said of the Hamas attack at the tense Friday meeting, according to official reports.
Dozens of Hamas terrorists surrendered to IDF soldiers this week. 1717Bazz/X
“At the same time, the atrocities committed by Hamas can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” he stressed.
Under the bombardment, Guterres added, the conditions for effective delivery of humanitarian aid to those in the Gaza Strip “no longer exist.”
Several delegations – including Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates – repeated calls for a ceasefire.
A child and a man injured in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza await treatment at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. HAITHAM IMAD/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The United States, however, supported Israeli concerns that a ceasefire would prolong Hamas’ “reign of terror” in the region.
“While the US strongly supports a lasting peace in which both Israel and Palestine can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate ceasefire. This will only plant the seeds for the next war, because Hamas has no desire to see a lasting peace, to see a two-state solution,” said Deputy Permanent Representative Robert A. Wood.
Wood also criticized the failure of the Security Council to condemn the events of Oct. 7.
“It underlines the fundamental disconnect between the discussions we have had in this chamber and the reality on the ground,” he stressed.
The meeting adjourned at 12:20 p.m. ET without a new draft resolution on the crisis, though the council plans to reconvene at 5:30 p.m.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
