The IDF and Shin Bet announced Friday that they have eliminated a senior Hamas terrorist who held hostage approximately 1,000 Gazan residents at the Rantisi Hospital in Gaza.
Based on precise intelligence and with the direction of IDF ground troops, IDF aircraft struck and killed Ahmed Siam, a Hamas company commander of the Naser Radwan Company.
An IDF spokesperson revealed earlier in the week that Siam was holding approximately 1,000 Gazan residents as hostages at the Rantisi Hospital, preventing them from evacuating to the south for their safety.
“Ahmed Siam was killed while hiding in the “al Buraq” school, where additional terrorists under this command were also hiding and were killed,” the IDF and Shin Bet said in a joint statement.
“Ahmed Siam demonstrates once again that Hamas uses the civilians of the Gaza Strip as human shields for terror purposes.”
Below is a recording of a call between a senior Israeli COGAT officer and a senior Gazan official at Rantisi Hospital.
The IDF has since facilitated the evacuation of both the Rantisi and the Nasser hospitals, and opened an additional route for the movement of the civilian population towards the southern Gaza sector.
Here’s a recording of the report by an IDF soldier in the elite Givati Brigade who was securing the evacuation from Rantisi Hospital; he notes armed men were among the civilians trying to leave the combat zone but adds the situation is “under control.”
IDF troops opened and secured an evacuation route on Friday along which civilians can leave on foot and in ambulances, at times also clashing with terrorists who attempted to prevent the evacuation.
“During the IDF activity to secure the corridor, armed terrorists approached the troops, and fired RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) toward them. IDF troops struck the terrorists,” the IDF said in a statement.
“The terrorist organization Hamas operates terrorist networks in civilian buildings while cynically exploiting them, including Rantisi hospital.”
