Israel reveals tunnel under Gaza hospital
The Israeli Army said on Sunday it had retrieved the body of Hamas' military chief Mohammed Sinwar in an underground tunnel beneath a hospital in southern Gaza, following a targeted operation last month.
Another senior Hamas leader, Mohammad Shabana, commander of the Rafah Brigade, was also found dead at the scene along with a number of other militants, who are still being identified, said IDF spokesperson, Brigadier General Effie Defrin.
Israeli forces gave a small group of foreign reporters a tour of the tunnel that had been uncovered beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis, which Defrin said was a major command and control compound for Hamas.
"This is another example of the cynical use by Hamas, using civilians as human shields, using civilian infrastructure, hospitals, again and again," said Defrin.
"We found underneath the hospital, right under the emergency room, a compound of a few rooms. In one of them we found, we killed Mohammed Sinwar," he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sinwar's death last month, but Defrin said they now had his DNA which proved beyond doubt it was him.
Hamas has not commented on reports of the death of either Sinwar or Shabana.
Sinwar was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Palestinian militant group's deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies, and which triggered the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Shabana was one of Hamas's most senior and battle-hardened commanders in southern Gaza. He played a central role in constructing the network of tunnels under the southern city of Rafah, which were used for ambushes and cross-border raids.
The drive to Khan Younis in Israeli military vehicles showed widespread devastation, with countless buildings lying in ruins, and piles of rubble collected at the roadside.
The Israeli military has raided or besieged numerous hospitals during the war, alleging that Hamas uses them to conceal fighters and orchestrate operations -- a charge Hamas has repeatedly denied. While Israel has presented evidence in certain cases, some of its assertions remain unverified.
Defrin said the army had carefully planned the strike near the European Hospital in order not to damage it.
A large trench dug in front of the emergency room entrance led down to a hole in the claustrophobic, concrete tunnel that was used as a hideaway by Hamas fighters, the army said.
During the search of the site, Israeli forces recovered weapon stockpiles, ammunition, cash and documents that are now being reviewed for intelligence value.
"We will dismantle Hamas because we cannot live with this terror organization right in our backyard, right across our border," Defrin said.
More than 54,000 Palestinians have died during the ongoing Israeli assault, according to Gaza health authorities. The UN has warned that most of Gaza's 2.3 million population is at risk of famine. (Reuters)
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Korea Herald
6 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Israel reveals tunnel under Gaza hospital
The Israeli Army said on Sunday it had retrieved the body of Hamas' military chief Mohammed Sinwar in an underground tunnel beneath a hospital in southern Gaza, following a targeted operation last month. Another senior Hamas leader, Mohammad Shabana, commander of the Rafah Brigade, was also found dead at the scene along with a number of other militants, who are still being identified, said IDF spokesperson, Brigadier General Effie Defrin. Israeli forces gave a small group of foreign reporters a tour of the tunnel that had been uncovered beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis, which Defrin said was a major command and control compound for Hamas. "This is another example of the cynical use by Hamas, using civilians as human shields, using civilian infrastructure, hospitals, again and again," said Defrin. "We found underneath the hospital, right under the emergency room, a compound of a few rooms. In one of them we found, we killed Mohammed Sinwar," he said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sinwar's death last month, but Defrin said they now had his DNA which proved beyond doubt it was him. Hamas has not commented on reports of the death of either Sinwar or Shabana. Sinwar was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Palestinian militant group's deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies, and which triggered the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Shabana was one of Hamas's most senior and battle-hardened commanders in southern Gaza. He played a central role in constructing the network of tunnels under the southern city of Rafah, which were used for ambushes and cross-border raids. The drive to Khan Younis in Israeli military vehicles showed widespread devastation, with countless buildings lying in ruins, and piles of rubble collected at the roadside. The Israeli military has raided or besieged numerous hospitals during the war, alleging that Hamas uses them to conceal fighters and orchestrate operations -- a charge Hamas has repeatedly denied. While Israel has presented evidence in certain cases, some of its assertions remain unverified. Defrin said the army had carefully planned the strike near the European Hospital in order not to damage it. A large trench dug in front of the emergency room entrance led down to a hole in the claustrophobic, concrete tunnel that was used as a hideaway by Hamas fighters, the army said. During the search of the site, Israeli forces recovered weapon stockpiles, ammunition, cash and documents that are now being reviewed for intelligence value. "We will dismantle Hamas because we cannot live with this terror organization right in our backyard, right across our border," Defrin said. More than 54,000 Palestinians have died during the ongoing Israeli assault, according to Gaza health authorities. The UN has warned that most of Gaza's 2.3 million population is at risk of famine. (Reuters)
Korea Herald
a day ago
- Korea Herald
Israel retrieves the body of a Thai hostage as 95 people are reported killed in Gaza
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel said Saturday it retrieved the body of a Thai hostage abducted into the Gaza Strip during the Hamas-led attack that sparked the war, as Israel's military continued its offensive, killing at least 95 people in the past 24 hours, according to Gaza's health ministry. Nattapong Pinta had come to Israel to work in agriculture. Israel's government said he was seized from Kibbutz Nir Oz and killed early in the war, which began on Oct. 7, 2023. Thailand's foreign ministry said the bodies of two other citizens were yet to be retrieved. Thais were the largest group of foreigners held captive. Many lived on the outskirts of southern Israeli kibbutzim and towns, the first places overrun in the attack. Forty-six Thais have been killed during the war, according to the foreign ministry. Israel's defense minister said Pinta's body was retrieved from the Rafah area in southern Gaza. The army said he was seized by the Mujahideen Brigades, the small armed group that also took two Israeli-American hostages, Judih Weinstein and Gad Haggai, whose bodies were retrieved on Thursday. Israel's military later said it killed the head of the Mujahideen Brigades, As'ad Aby Sharaiya, in Gaza City on Saturday. Fifty-five hostages remain in Gaza. Israel says more than half are dead. Families rallied again Saturday evening in Israel, calling for a cease-fire deal to bring everyone home. Hamas issued an unusual warning about another hostage, Matan Zangauker, saying Israel's military had surrounded the area where he's held and that any harm that came to him during a rescue attempt would be Israel's responsibility. Israel's military didn't immediately comment. "The decision to expand the (military) ground maneuver is at the cost of Matan's life and the lives of all the hostages," Zangauker's mother, Einav, told the rally in Tel Aviv. A strike in Gaza City killed six members of a family, including two children, according to the Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals. Israel's military said the strike targeted the Mujahideen Brigades leader. "This is the real destruction," a man said as he carried the body of a small boy from the scene. Four Israeli strikes hit the Muwasi area in southern Gaza between Rafah and Khan Younis. In northern Gaza, a strike hit an apartment, killing seven people including a mother and five children. Their bodies were taken to Shifa hospital. "Stand up, my love," one weeping woman said, touching the shrouded bodies. Israel said it was responding to Hamas' "barbaric attacks" and dismantling its capabilities. It said it takes all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm. Staff at Nasser hospital, which received the bodies of six people over the past 24 hours, said they were killed while on their way to get food aid. Much of Gaza's population of over 2 million relies on aid after widespread destruction of agriculture as well as a recent Israeli blockade. Experts have warned of famine. Israel's army has warned that the aid distribution area is an active combat zone during nighttime hours. It said several suspects attempted to approach troops operating in the Tel al-Sultan area overnight "in a manner that posed a threat." The army said troops called out, then fired warning shots as the suspects advanced. An army official who couldn't be named in line with military procedures said the shots were fired about a kilometer (half-mile) from the distribution site. Over the past weeks, shootings have occurred frequently near the new hubs where thousands of desperate Palestinians are being directed to collect food. Witnesses say nearby Israeli troops have opened fire, and more than 80 people have been killed, according to Gaza hospital officials. Israel's military has said it fired warning shots or, in some instances, at individuals approaching. The hubs are run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a new group of mainly American contractors. Israel wants it to replace a system coordinated by the United Nations and aid groups. A GHF spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with the group's rules, said it didn't feed Gaza residents on Saturday and blamed Hamas threats. There was no immediate Hamas response. Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid under the UN-led system. The UN and aid groups deny there's significant diversion of aid to militants and say the new system — which they have rejected — allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and won't be effective. The UN says it has been unable to distribute much aid under its system because of Israeli military restrictions on movements and insecurity. Separately, Palestinians lined up at a soup kitchen in Gaza City for handouts on the second day of Eid al-Adha . "I have been standing here for more than an hour and a half. I feel I have a sunstroke, and I am in need," said Farida al-Sayed, who said she had six people to feed. "I only had lentils, and I ran out of them." Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted 251 hostages. Most were released in cease-fire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered dozens of bodies. Israel's military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants. The offensive has destroyed large parts of Hamas-run Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of roughly 2 million Palestinians.
Korea Herald
4 days ago
- Korea Herald
US vetoes UN Security Council resolution demanding immediate Gaza ceasefire
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the resolution would only have empowered Hamas. 'Hamas could end this brutal conflict immediately by laying down its arms and releasing all remaining hostages,' he said in a statement. Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon thanked the United States for refusing to abandon the hostages. He said the resolution's failure to make the release of hostages a condition for a ceasefire would have put all the pressure on Israel and handed Hamas 'time, leverage and political cover.' But the US veto of the resolution — its fifth since the start of the war — was roundly criticized by other members of the council, who accused the United States of providing Israel with impunity. The Chinese ambassador to the UN said Israel's actions have 'crossed every red line' of international humanitarian law and seriously violated UN resolutions. 'Yet, due to the shielding by one country, these violations have not been stopped or held accountable," Ambassador Fu Cong said. Britain's UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward, a usual US ally, lashed out at Israel. 'This Israeli government's decisions to expand its military operations in Gaza and severely restrict aid are unjustifiable, disproportionate and counterproductive, and the UK completely opposes them,' she said. Pakistan's Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said the US veto "will be remembered as a complicity, a green light for continued annihilation. A moment where the entire world was expecting action. But yet again, this council was blocked and prevented by one member from carrying out its responsibility.' Slovenia's UN Ambassador Samuel Zbogar, the coordinator for the council's 10 elected members, stressed that it was never the intention to provoke a veto, and therefore the resolution focused on the humanitarian crisis and the urgent need for unimpeded access to deliver aid. 'Starving civilians and inflicting immense suffering is inhumane and against international law,' he told the council after the vote. 'No war objective can justify such action. We had hoped and expected that this was our shared understanding.' Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said Palestinians are now urging governments to take 'real measures' to pressure Israel to get out of Gaza before it implements what he called an Israeli plan 'to destroy our people." And in the coming days, he said, the Palestinians will head to the 193-member General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, with a similar humanitarian-focused resolution. Unlike in the Security Council, assembly resolutions are not legally binding, though they are seen as a barometer of world opinion. The US vetoed the last Security Council resolution on Gaza in November, under the Biden administration, also because the ceasefire demand was not directly linked to the release of all hostages. Similarly, the current resolution demands that those taken by Hamas and other groups be released, but it does not make it a condition for a truce. President Donald Trump's administration has tried to ramp up its efforts to broker peace in Gaza after 20 months of war. However, Hamas has sought amendments to a US proposal that special envoy Steve Witkoff has called 'totally unacceptable.' The vote followed a decision by an Israeli and US-backed foundation to pause food delivery in Gaza after health officials said dozens of Palestinians were killed in a series of shootings this week. Israel and the US say the new system was designed to prevent Hamas from stealing aid previously distributed by the UN. The UN has rejected the new system. The UN says its distribution system worked very well during the March ceasefire and is carefully monitored. Gaza is almost completely reliant on international aid because Israel's offensive has destroyed nearly all food production capabilities. Israel imposed a blockade on supplies into Gaza on March 2, and limited aid began to enter again late last month after pressure from allies and warnings of famine. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 251. They are still holding 58 hostages, a third of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel's military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The ministry is led by medical professionals but reports to the Hamas-run government. Its toll is seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts, though Israel has challenged its numbers.
