Hamas Rejects Egyptian Peace Deal as IDF Destroys Underground Hamas HQ, Kills Terrorists in 2 UN Schools
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Hamas Rejects Egyptian Peace Deal as IDF Destroys Underground Hamas HQ, Kills Terrorists in 2 UN Schools

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Hamas Rejects Egyptian Peace Deal as IDF Destroys Underground Hamas HQ, Kills Terrorists in 2 UN Schools

Israeli troops operating in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Dec. 25, 2023. Photo: IDF

The Israeli Defense Forces IDF destroyed Hamas’ underground headquarters in northern Gaza, fought terrorists inside two United Nations schools, and secured hundreds of grenades, RPG projectiles, and explosives. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who is in hiding, claimed Hamas is “crushing”  the IDF and rejected an Egyptian peace proposal.

The Israeli Defense Forces IDF released footage on Dec. 25. showing an RPG-wielding terrorist being eliminated by a drone strike.

According to the IDF, as the Nahal Brigade set out for an offensive against Hamas’s Daraj-Tuffah battalion in Gaza City, troops spotted a Hamas operative with an RPG approaching them. The troops called in an airstrike, killing the operative.

The IDF announced the completion of a “large-scale operation to dismantle the northern underground headquarters of Hamas in Gaza” on Sunday night, JNS reports.

Troops retrieved the bodies of five hostages earlier this month after discovering the subterranean tunnel network during activities in Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight refugee camps, JNS wrote. After taking over the camp after intense fighting, killing many terrorists, and finding hundreds of weapons, the IDF uncovered a massive tunnel network serving as the underground headquarters of Hamas, which included two levels—the first nearly 33 feet deep and the second even deeper. The tunnel network included many branches and was used to wage war and conceal the movements of Hamas terrorists.

Weapons, infrastructure for the production of weapons, and rooms for emergencies were found. The tunnel network was connected to a shaft that reached the house of Ahmed Ahandor, the commander of Hamas’s northern division in the Gaza Strip, who was killed by the IDF last month after serving in the post for 18 years, JNS reports.

The tunnel network was hidden under a school and a hospital, according to the IDF. “At the end of the mission, the forces destroyed the underground headquarters. The destruction of the headquarters in Jabalia is part of the effort to deal with Hamas’s tunnel infrastructure and harm its senior commanders and strategic capabilities. This effort continues all the time and is now also being carried out in Khan Yunis and the south of the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said.

Israeli forces also killed terrorists hiding in a school in the Sheikh Radwan area of Gaza City, where the IDF secured hundreds of weapons, including grenades, RPG projectiles, and explosives. Dozens of terrorists were captured and transferred to Israel for further interrogation by  Shin Bet.

“We raided a school where a large population was hiding,” said a deputy company commander of the elite Shayetet 13 commando unit. “After the evacuation of the population, many weapons were found in the compound that were hidden among the citizens’ equipment.”

Israeli soldiers fought Hamas terrorists operating inside two United Nations schools in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday.

The military said the terrorists were hiding inside the Al Rafaa and Zavaha schools in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City.

“This is further evidence that Hamas uses the civilian population and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip as human shields for its terrorist activity,” the IDF stated.

IDF Nahal Brigade troops located dozens of explosive devices hidden inside UNRWA bags, along with AK-47-style rifles and 15 suicide belts.

The IDF said that some of the terrorists in the schools were members of Islamic Jihad. Several had participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre of 1,200 people.

The use of the sacks belonging to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency(UNRWA) raises further questions about its role in supporting Hamas, JNS wrote.

Earlier this month, Israeli soldiers discovered more than 100 rockets hidden in UNRWA boxes inside a home in northern Gaza, according to the IDF. In October, UNRWA reported that fuel and humanitarian aid was stolen from one of its compounds by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health. A released hostage told Israeli Channel 13 reporter Almog Boker that he was held captive by a UNRWA teacher.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad rejected an Egyptian proposal to relinquish power in Gaza in return for a permanent ceasefire, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters on Monday. Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, added: “There can be no negotiations without a complete stop to the aggression.”

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials. Egypt is the home of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the parent organization of Hamas.

The United States gives Egypt $1.3 billion in annual military aid despite their ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.  In September, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken overruled congressional restrictions on U.S. military aid to Egypt, approving another $235 million for Cairo.

Since 1978, the United States has provided Egypt with more than $50 billion in military aid and $30 billion in economic assistance, according to the State Department.

IDF

In his first public message since the barbaric Oct. 7 massacre,  delusional Hamas terror leader Yahya Sinwar claimed from his hiding place that Hamas is “crushing” the Israeli army.

In his first public message since the massacres of October 7, Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar on Monday remained defiant while grossly inflating the terror group’s achievements in the war, Times of Israel wrote. Sinwar is in hiding, presumably somewhere in his hometown of Khan Yunis.

Hamas is facing a “fierce, violent and unprecedented battle” against Israel, Sinwar acknowledged. But he also claimed the terror group was on its way to “crushing” the Israel Defense Forces and stated Hamas will not submit to “the occupation’s conditions.”

IDF

Sinwar falsely claimed that the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, had “targeted” over 5,000 Israeli soldiers and officers, and killed about third of them — that is, over 1,500, Times of Israel reports.

The actual figure of IDF deaths is one-tenth of what the terror leader alleged, according to the Times of Israel: 156 soldiers have so far been killed in the ground operation in Gaza, and over 300 members of the security forces were killed in Hamas’ October 7 attack.

Sinwar claimed 3,500 Israeli troops were wounded or disabled, whereas the real figure is less than 200, according to the IDF.

Sinwar also claimed Hamas had destroyed 750 Israeli military vehicles. Very few IDF vehicles have been severely damaged, the Times of Israel writes.

Israel has killed at least 7,000 Hamas terrorists so far, Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said on Dec. 9.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, stating the war against Hamas is not close to finished.

“We are not stopping; we are continuing to battle. We will be intensifying the fighting in the coming days, as this will be a long war. It is not close to over,” Netanyahu told soldiers.

“We are proud of you and trust you. We see the determination and the desire to continue until the end,” he added.

Netanyahu was joined by Israel Defense Forces Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Amir Baram and other high-ranking officers.

In his Christmas message Sunday night, Netanyahu said the Jewish state was confronting “monsters who murdered children in front of their parents and parents in front of their children, who raped and beheaded women, who burned babies alive, who took babies, hostages.”

“This is a battle not only of Israel against these barbarians, it’s a battle of civilization against barbarism,” Netanyahu said.

On Sunday, Netanyahu said he had told U.S. President Joe Biden the war would continue for “however long it takes.”

“I appreciate the steadfast U.S. position—which supports our war effort—in the U.N. Security Council. I told President Biden yesterday that we will fight until absolute victory,” said Netanyahu.

“Our decisions in the war are based on our operational considerations, and I will not expand further. They are not dictated by external pressure. The decision on how to use our forces is an independent decision of the IDF and nobody else,” said Netanyahu.

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Author: Richard Abelson