IDF soldiers of the Golani Brigade captured the center square of Gaza City’s Shejaia neighborhood and destroyed a statue dedicated to the deaths of IDF soldiers, the IDF stated on Monday evening.
The Shejaia square, named “Palestine Square,” had a statue erected glorifying a blow dealt to troops of the Golani Brigade during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge.
On July 20, 2014, at 1:05 a.m., an armored personnel carrier (APC) carrying seven soldiers of the Golani’s 13th Battalion detonated an explosive device it had driven over in Shejaia. All seven on board were killed.
Another six soldiers from the brigade were killed in combat in the area over the course of the morning.
"Wherever such a statue is erected, we will come and destroy it"
"We are here, the 13th battalion, at the place where the terrorist organization Hamas erected a statue glorifying the tragedy that befell the brigade during Protective Edge,” the commander of the 13th Battalion said. “We send a clear message to Hamas: wherever such a statue is erected, we will come and destroy it."
After Protective Edge concluded, Hamas subsequently dedicated a victory square at the site with a statue featuring a fist coming out of an APC. The statue also had three discs, one of which bore the name of Oron Shaul, a fallen IDF soldier whose body is held by Hamas, the IDF added.
On Monday, nine years after the thirteen Golani soldiers fell in Shejaia, troops from the 188th Brigade’s combat team, along with the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, seized control of the site and demolished the Hamas statue.
The seizure of Shejaia’s infamous “Palestine Square” comes several days after another IDF victory in the neighborhood.
On Friday, IDF troops of the 188th Brigade took over and destroyed the headquarters of the Hamas's Shejaia Battalion.