Israeli security forces have so far detained about 350 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists during the operation at Shifa Hospital, most of whom surrendered.
The IDF is using an entire corridor in the hospital to hold the terrorists, which is serving as a temporary detention facility for the military intelligence and Shin Bet for interrogating terrorists, to obtain intelligence from them as quickly as possible.
An IDF source told Army Radio that "we are sitting on a gold mine."
Among the detainees were medium level Hamas commanders, including the Gaza Brigade Commander Izz a-Din al-Haddad.
One of the detainees, an Islamic Jihad terrorist, recently fired rockets at the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip. During his interrogation, he said, "We left Shifa – we fired at Sderot – and returned to Shifa, because we understood it was a safe area."
Also, during the activity at the hospital, the forces seized Hamas military archives and binders stolen by Hamas from the Erez crossing on October 7, including sensitive COGAT unit information.
The IDF assesses that Hamas may have tried in recent months to re-excavate and rehabilitate the underground tunnel system under Shifa, but that the system, which was already destroyed during the war, does not enable terrorists to stay or escape.
The attack on the hospital began when Shayetet 13 fighters first raided, using fast armored personnel carriers and reached the hospital gates within fifteen minutes and without resistance.
During their interrogation, the terrorists testified that they were surprised by the IDF raid and said that they thought the IDF would not return to Shifa.
20 minutes after the raid, the 401st Brigade joined in tanks, armored personnel carriers and D9s and completed the full outer encirclement of the hospital.
IDF sources said that "much will be learned about this raid at military academies in the future."
During his interrogation, a jihadi terrorist said: "I understood that Allah left me with two choices: surrender or die, and I chose to surrender."
