Israeli Troops Captured Key Hamas Outposts In Gaza City Friday, Killing Some 150 Terror Operatives in the process, the army said, as fierce fighting continued in and around Gaza City between the military and armed gunmen.

The development came as heavy fighting was reported in the vicinity of Shifa Hospital, where Israel believes Hamas’s main headquarters to be located. Palestinian reports claimed that Israeli special forces were operating in the area and that armored forces were closing in.

The Associated Press said thousands of Palestinians were fleeing from around Shifa, and joining a growing exodus to the south of the strip. The Wall Street Journal reported that authorities at the hospital had begun evacuating the medical center following orders from the IDF.

Between 50,000 and 60,000 people had previously been sheltering inside and around the grounds of the hospital, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which there are also 2,500 patients.

On Friday evening the military asserted that a blast that Gaza health officials said had killed 13 people at the hospital compound earlier in the day had been caused by Palestinian gunmen. Hamas blamed an Israeli strike.

The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the explosion was caused by an errant missile launched toward Israeli forces operating near the hospital, but which missed and struck the medical center itself. Adraee cited “an analysis of the IDF’s operational systems.”

Palestinian reports said another blast at Gaza City’s Al-Buraq school killed 50 people, including Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s granddaughter. Israel has not commented on that blast and the report could not be verified. Schools in Gaza are currently inactive and it was not clear who was in the compound.

The IDF is expecting to be fighting in Gaza for a year, Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Friday. The unsourced report said military commanders are being told there is no pressure to hurry and that the IDF is preparing for a year of fighting “to get to the fourth stage of this war: The entry of a new government in Gaza that is not Hamas and is not backed by the Iranians.”

Israeli troops captured key Hamas outposts in Gaza City Friday, killing some 150 terror operatives in the process, the army said, as fierce fighting continued in and around Gaza City between the military and armed gunmen.

The development came as heavy fighting was reported in the vicinity of Shifa Hospital, where Israel believes Hamas’s main headquarters to be located. Palestinian reports claimed that Israeli special forces were operating in the area and that armored forces were closing in.

The Associated Press said thousands of Palestinians were fleeing from around Shifa, and joining a growing exodus to the south of the strip. The Wall Street Journal reported that authorities at the hospital had begun evacuating the medical center following orders from the IDF.

Between 50,000 and 60,000 people had previously been sheltering inside and around the grounds of the hospital, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which there are also 2,500 patients.

On Friday evening the military asserted that a blast that Gaza health officials said had killed 13 people at the hospital compound earlier in the day had been caused by Palestinian gunmen. Hamas blamed an Israeli strike.

The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the explosion was caused by an errant missile launched toward Israeli forces operating near the hospital, but which missed and struck the medical center itself. Adraee cited “an analysis of the IDF’s operational systems.”

Palestinian reports said another blast at Gaza City’s Al-Buraq school killed 50 people, including Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s granddaughter. Israel has not commented on that blast and the report could not be verified. Schools in Gaza are currently inactive and it was not clear who was in the compound.

The IDF is expecting to be fighting in Gaza for a year, Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Friday. The unsourced report said military commanders are being told there is no pressure to hurry and that the IDF is preparing for a year of fighting “to get to the fourth stage of this war: The entry of a new government in Gaza that is not Hamas and is not backed by the Iranians.”

The Israel Defense Forces said that in recent days, its 401st Armored Brigade led an assault on the so-called Bader outpost — the main base of Hamas’s Al-Shati Refugee Camp Battalion — located adjacent to civilian homes.

The army said that during the raid on the Bader post, troops destroyed military headquarters and rocket launching sites. Separately, the IDF said the 401st Brigade captured another Hamas post in the area and destroyed a weapons manufacturing plant, rocket launching positions and tunnels.

In another raid, the IDF said the brigade battled Hamas gunmen at the Blue Beach Resort on Gaza City’s coast. It said some 30 terror operatives were holed up at the hotel, firing anti-tank missiles at the forces. “After it was captured, it was revealed that the terrorists used the hotel rooms as a shelter, as well as for planning attacks above and below ground,” the IDF said.

Some 150 Hamas operatives were also killed by forces during the battles in the Al-Shati area.

Though rocket fire from Gaza has lessened dramatically over the course of the war, on Friday afternoon a volley was fired at central Israel from Gaza for the first time in some two days. Two people were injured by falling rocket shrapnel after Iron Dome interceptions in Tel Aviv, one of them moderately and the other lightly.

Source: The Times of Israel