IDF 36th Division Has Established Full 'Operational Control' Over Gaza City's Shejaiya Neighborhood

As I wrote a couple of days ago, Israel has been making great strides in Northern Gaza against Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had termed it the beginning of the end for Hamas about two weeks ago. Now, Israel’s chief military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said on Friday that the IDF had achieved nearly “full operational control” of northern Gaza. Some evidence of that was how they wiped out the Hamas tunnel/command network that was under the Palestine Square area. They even planted an Israeli flag right in the middle of the square. They've also been successful at taking out important people in the terror network. On Friday, they blew up the Hamas operative who supplied the group with weapons, Hassan Atrash, in southern Gaza in Rafah, according to IDF officials. He was also involved in smuggling weapons into Gaza and the West Bank, according to the Israelis.

The IDF announces that it has established full “operational control” over Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, which saw some of the fiercest fighting during the ground offensive against Hamas. In a statement, the IDF says the 36th Division has completed dismantling Hamas’s “core capabilities” in Shejaiya. It says that while it has operational control, troops will continue to carry out limited operations in the neighborhood to destroy the remaining Hamas infrastructure and kill any operatives still hiding. During the fighting in Shejaiya, the IDF says troops encountered and killed many Hamas operatives who opened fire and set off explosives. It says dozens of tunnel shafts, found in homes, schools, and health clinics, were destroyed, along with caches of weapons.

The IDF says troops of the Golani Brigade raided the homes of senior Hamas members and seized intelligence materials in Shejaiya, and the 188th Armored Brigade captured the headquarters of Hamas’s Shejaiya battalion, from which terrorists set out to carry out the October 7 onslaught in southern Israel. The Paratroopers Brigade, meanwhile, demolished more than 100 buildings used by Hamas in the area, as well as located dozens of tunnel shafts, and arrested many operatives who had surrendered, among them a Hamas company commander and terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacres, the IDF says. The Bislamach Brigade also demolished a number of buildings used by Hamas, the IDF adds.

• More at: RedState - IDF Takes Out High Ranking Hamas Weapons Operative in Precision Strike
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2023/12/24/watch-idf-takes-out-hamas-weapons-guy-in-precision-strike-n2167910
Rumble: IDF Takes Out High Ranking Hamas Weapons Operative In Precision Strike
https://rumble.com/v435gq8-idf-takes-out-high-ranking-hamas-weapons-operative-in-precision-strike.html