Israeli Defense Minister “Full control of west of Gaza City, next phase begins”.

A photo released on the 16th (local time) shows the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducting operations in the northern Gaza Strip./AFP·Yonhap News

On the 16th (local time), Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had completely seized the western part of Gaza City in the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

Gallant stated, “The Israeli forces have taken control of the western part of Gaza City and completed the cleanup of the Hamas remnants,” and “The next phase of the IDF’s ground operation has now begun.”

Herzi Halevi, the IDF Chief of Staff, also announced on the same day during his visit to the Gaza Strip, where ground operations are ongoing, that they have nearly eliminated Hamas’ military system in the northern Gaza Strip.

Halevi stated, “We have almost destroyed the military system of Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip,” and “There is still some finishing work to be done, but we will complete it.”

He added, “As long as there is more work for the Israeli forces to do in the Gaza Strip, operations will be carried out in more areas,” and “We will remove Hamas commanders and members, and destroy their infrastructure.”

On the 11th (local time), Palestinian medical staff are treating an infant who was injured in their home by an Israeli military airstrike at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, where fuel and electricity are running out./Reuters·Yonhap News

Minister Gallant revealed that they discovered important things for the next phase of the ground operation at the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the largest medical institution in the Gaza Strip, which was raided the day before.

In relation to this, the IDF released footage of the entrance to a Hamas underground tunnel found on the premises of the Al Shifa Hospital on the same day.

The IDF also found a Hamas pickup truck loaded with weapons near the entrance of the tunnel. The IDF has claimed that Hamas had set up an operations headquarters at the Al Shifa Hospital and had been using patients and medical staff inside the hospital as human shields.

In addition, the IDF suspected that Hamas had kept the hostages captured during a surprise attack last month here and launched a search operation by deploying forces to the hospital in the early morning of the previous day.

In fact, the IDF’s 603rd Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade reported that it had recovered the body of Israeli woman Yehudit Weiss (65) not far from the Al Shifa Hospital building.