The 162nd Division, a.k.a. Utzbat HaPlada (the Steel Formation), subordinate to the IDF Southern Command, on Monday, in the city of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, conducted a special operation at the Hamas command center in Kamal Adwan Hospital, killing 106 terrorists and detaining 250 in less than two hours.
The encirclement operation constituted the largest capture of terrorists in the entire Operation Iron Swords.
According to initial Shin Bet interrogation of the terrorists who emerged from the hospital with their hands in the air, it appears that they expected the IDF to fight against them for three weeks, as it had done in the previous round of fighting, and then leave the area and allow them to regroup. They did not expect the Israeli forces to fight until the entire Hamas Jabaliya Battalion was destroyed, leaving behind a whole city booby-trapped with explosives.
The terrorists were hoping that when the IDF advanced to within a short distance from the hospital, they would be able to escape to Gaza City or leave in ambulances disguised as wounded victims. However according to security sources, at a certain point, the terrorists holed up inside the hospital and realized that they had no choice but to fight to the death or surrender.
The 162nd Division, commanded by Brigadier General Itzik Cohen, has been fighting in the Gaza Strip continuously for 15 months, since the first day of the war on October 7, 2023. IDF figures show the division’s incredible achievements: 11,285 terrorists were eliminated and 2,482 detained; as well as some 100 kilometers of underground systems destroyed.
Since the start of the fighting, 240 of the division’s fighters have been killed, and 4,872 wounded – of whom 3,690 have returned to service.
During the months of the war, Jabaliya became a booby-trapped enclave, with the main roads leading to and within it being rigged with powerful explosive devices, including unexploded air force munitions.
Many apartments were converted into sniper, anti-tank, and observation posts, and many buildings were booby-trapped and set up in the area for terrorist ambushes. An analysis of the data collected by the 162nd Division indicates that 1,100 explosive devices were located in the Jabaliya area alone, and at least 606 buildings were booby-trapped by terrorist cells.
The first attack in the hospital area was carried out by the Givati Brigade about a month ago, killing 71. In the second attack, a combat team from the 401st Brigade 401 fought the terrorists who decided to barricade themselves inside the hospital, believing that the IDF would be afraid to penetrate the hospital.
The Shin Bet gathered information indicating that many Hamas terrorists who participated in the October 7 atrocities were hiding inside the hospital. Finally, Brigadier General Cohen decided on a third operation, during which the division’s forces surrounded the hospital within 15 minutes, with the 13th Squadron special force placed on high alert for a raid.
The hospital director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyya, was called in Arabic to come out. At first, he denied that there were terrorists in the building, but after the force commanders made it clear to him that the hospital was surrounded, and if they didn’t come out, the army would break in – he listened to reason.
Shortly after the hospital director returned to the compound, terrorists began to come out with their hands in the air. Some pretended to be wounded and left inside ambulances. The division commander ordered his men to allow the terrorists to leave in ambulances, and then, at the checkposts manned by Shin Bet personnel and military intelligence Unit 504, the terrorists were picked up from the ambulance. Before being detained, the murderers and rapists of October 7 wept bitterly and begged not to be taken to Israel.
MK Ahmed Tibi on Tuesday called from the Knesset plenum for the release of Dr. Abu Safiyya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, proclaiming, “Israel is the country that has destroyed and is destroying the most hospitals in the world.”
Two things: if Hamas is hiding inside hospitals, it should expect their destruction; and also – why does Gaza need so many hospitals? According to the UN health agency, Gaza had 36 hospitals serving an estimated 2 million residents. According to the American Hospital Association, there are only 34 hospitals in the United States for a population of comparable-size.
One last thing about Kamal Adwan, after whom the hospital was named: he was a veteran Fatah terrorist who was killed in the IDF’s Operation Spring of Youth on the night between April 9 and 10, 1973. Forces from Sayeret Matkal, the Paratroopers Brigade, the 13th Squadron, and Mossad attacked several Fatah and PFLP targets in the Beirut and Sidon regions, in response to a wave of terrorist attacks. Three Fatah senior figures, including Adwan, were surprised and eliminated inside their apartments, which they perceived as safe havens. 100 Fatah terrorists were eliminated altogether.
