Tel Aviv [Israel], November 13 : The Israel Defence Force (IDF) troops killed 21 members of a terror cell that opened fire at Israeli forces from Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, The Times of Israel reported on Monday.
According to the IDF, the cell had opened fire at troops of the 188th Armoured Brigade with light arms and RPGs, while being "embedded within a group of civilians at the entrance of the hospital."
The IDF said troops, with air support, returned fire at the Hamas operatives, killing 21 of them. No troops were hurt but one tank was damaged by an RPG.
The Times of Israel reported, quoting the IDF, that amid the exchange of fire, civilians were seen leaving the hospital, and other operatives came out of adjacent buildings and hid among them to attack the Israeli forces.
After firing RPGs at troops, the IDF says the operatives fled back into the hospital.
"This incident is another example of Hamas's continued abuse of civilian structures, including hospitals, to carry out attacks," the IDF adds in a statement.
The military releases footage of the battle that appears to show RPG-wielding terrorists running into the hospital.
Meanwhile, IDF said that the IDF troops continue operational activity around the Shati area. During this, the Hamas terrorist infrastructure was uncovered at the Quds University, and inside the Abu Bakr Mosque, Soldiers located a tunnel shaft, intelligence materials and weapons in the area of Beit Hanoun and Inside the residence of a senior Islamic Jihad terrorist, a large number of weapons were discovered in a child's bedroom.
The Israeli Air Force said, "As part of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, aircraft of the Air Force and the ground forces attacked 4,300 strikes, hundreds of anti-tank launching positions, about 300 tunnel shafts, attacked about 3,000 terrorist infrastructures, including over a hundred captured buildings and hundreds of Hamas terrorist organization's weapons and command targets and control of the terrorist organization."
Amid the ongoing tensions and escalation of the war, the Israeli government is earmarking 200 million shekels (USD 51.7 million) to reinforce the security infrastructure of the country's hospitals, the Health and Finance Ministries announced.
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