(JNS) The IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate on Tuesday, March 26 released footage of captured Palestinian terrorists admitting to interrogators that 600 to 1,000 Hamas operatives have been hiding out in Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.

The detainees, identified as Nabeel Rajab Abed Shteivi and Bakr Ahmed Bakr Qanita, were captured during an IDF operation at Shifa launched last week in an attempt to root out a resurgent Hamas presence in the compound, which Israeli forces first captured in mid-November.

“Shifa, or schools and places like that, are our shelters,” said Shteivi, who worked on producing missiles for PIJ. He notes that Hamas controls all of Shifa’s buildings, and has a vast presence in the specialist departments. “You might see someone who doesn’t look like a nurse but is dressed in a nurse’s uniform.”

Qanita, a senior Hamas leader who commanded 143 other terrorists in the Gaza Strip and spent almost a month at Shifa before being captured, told interrogators from the IDF’s Unit 504 that between 600 and 1,000 operatives were holed up at the hospital at various times.

Hamas uses the hospital’s specialist division as one of its main hubs, he says, confirming Shteivi’s claim, and also uses the management offices.

Hamas terrorists are regrouping at Gaza hospitals, forcing the Israeli military to conduct mop-up operations in them, Channel 12 reported on Monday. The operation at Shifa Hospital has been going on for over a week.

According to the IDF, 170 terrorists have been killed in firefights in and around the compound. Another 500 have been detained. Large amounts of weapons have also been confiscated, many of which were hidden among hospital equipment,
patients and displaced civilians.