Hamas fires on IDF soldiers evacuating civilians in Gaza

Hamas terrorists on Saturday fired on Israeli forces securing the evacuation of Gaza civilians from the Shati refugee camp, the Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday morning.

According to the IDF, Israeli forces returned fire, eliminating the terrorists.

In another encounter in the camp, Israeli forces called in an airstrike on a terrorist cell that had barricaded themselves inside a building. An Israeli jet also hit a munitions warehouse after an anti-tank missile was fired from it, said the military.

Israeli forces also hit a four-man terror cell with an aerial drone. One of the terrorists escaped the initial attack and was pursued by the drone through the Shati camp’s narrow alleys before being hit.

Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters on Saturday night that there was no siege of the Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility.

“There has been a lot of misinformation from Gaza. So I want to clarify the facts. There is no siege, I repeat no siege on Shifa Hospital. The east side of the hospital is open for the safe passage of Gazans who wish to leave the hospital,” said Hagari.

“We’re speaking directly and regularly with the hospital staff. The staff of Shifa Hospital has requested that tomorrow we will help the babies in the pediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed,” he said.

Based on statements by Hamas figures, it appears the IDF is encircling a triangle area of three hospitals where Hamas maintains its headquarters, the Shifa, Al-Quds and Indonesian Hospitals.

Hamas’s main headquarters is located under the massive Shifa Hospital complex in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the IDF.

As reported by JNS, Hamas makes extensive use of Shifa Hospital. Believing that Israel would not attack a hospital during a war, Hamas leaders hide there, launch rockets from its compound, hide hostages in the bowels of the building, torture collaborators, and dig tunnels connecting Shifa to nearby sites.

Israel also released a recording of a phone call confirming that Hamas stores at least a half-million liters of fuel underneath the hospital.

JNS previously reported that Hamas was forcibly preventing Palestinians from heeding Israeli orders to evacuate to the south of the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, the IDF said on Sunday that humanitarian pauses in the fighting would continue to enable Palestinians to move south.

The IDF’s Arabic-language Spokesman, Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, said that Salah al-Din Road would be open to civilian movement for seven hours, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

He added that the military would make “tactical pauses” in Jabaliya and nearby Ezbet Mallin between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

A safe route will also be opened from Shifa Hospital via Al-Wahda Street to the Salah al-Din humanitarian corridor leading to the south of Wadi Gaza.