The IDF’s Shaldag Special Forces, led by Lt. Col. “B”, were crucial in retaking the Gaza border region on October 7, but will probably be best remembered for taking control of Hamas’s crucial asset, Shifa Hospital.
On Monday, B described Shaldag’s strategy and operations for taking over Shifa second by second to a small closed briefing of military reporters.
He noted that Shaldag (kingfisher) decided purposely to enter the Shifa complex by blowing through a wall to catch any potential Hamas terrorists by surprise.
Video footage showed Shaldag forces moving from room to room and facility to facility, finding Hamas military items.
Specially trained Oketz (sting) dogs often went ahead to locate potential booby-traps or Hamas terrorists waiting in ambush.
After checking floor -2 and the other floors of the Qatari and other facilities, Shaldag, Oketz, Yahalom, and others started to locate and penetrate Hamas's vast underground tunnel network around Shifa.
A video showed and B described the finding of weapons in many vehicles, eventually reaching a total of around 70.
At another moment, an arrested and partially wounded Hamas terrorist could be seen on video being interrogated in real time on hospital grounds by Unit 504 and Shin Bet interrogators.
Special orders were given to keep some of the Hamas forces alive specifically to gather intelligence.
B said that every single facility in the complex had concealed Hamas weapons, intelligence, or both.
Further, he said that the MRI facility had the most of all of the military items, displaying video of the dramatic moments when IDF forces first found weapons next to the MRI machine - even before IDF spokespeople and BBC media representatives started to show off the findings to the world.
Multiple Shaldag officers said that a mix of Palestinian patients and doctors (keeping their identities anonymous so as not to endanger them) signaled to IDF forces in many areas where Hamas had hidden military items.
Often these Palestinians would do so by flagging which areas they had been told were off-limits to them by Hamas.
Interestingly enough, multiple Shaldag officers said that they believed top leadership from Hamas had been in the Shifa tunnels, and not merely battalion commanders as described by IDF Chief Spokesman Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari.
They said that the extent of the ceramic construction for the rooms, the modern air conditioning, and other items were multiple steps above other tunnel command areas in other places for battalion-level commanders.
Moreover, B said that the Outpatient Building had unequivocal traces that hostages and bodies had been held there before the Shaldag entered the grounds.
He said that you could even smell the leftover odor of bodies that had been there, but which were then moved.
Hamas left long before IDF began Shifa siege?
After checking floor 2 and the other floors of the Qatari and other facilities, Shaldag, Oketz, Yahalom (diamond), and other forces started to locate and penetrate Hamas’s vast underground tunnel network around Shifa.
A video showed, and B described, a trove of some 70 weapons in many vehicles.
At another moment, a captured and wounded Hamas terrorist could be seen on video being interrogated on the hospital grounds by Unit 504 and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) interrogators.
Orders were issued to keep some of the Hamas forces alive to gather intelligence.
B said that every single facility in the complex had concealed Hamas weapons, intelligence, or both.
The MRI facility had the most military items, and a video displayed the dramatic moments when IDF forces first found weapons next to the MRI machine.
Several Shaldag officers said that Palestinian patients and doctors revealed to IDF forces many areas where Hamas had hidden military items by flagging which areas they had been told were off-limits.
Several Shaldag officers said that they believed the top Hamas leaders, and not merely battalion commanders, had been in the Shifa tunnels as described by IDF Chief Spokesman R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari.
They said that the extent of the ceramic construction for the rooms, the modern air conditioning, and other items, were many levels above the standard of battalion commander-level tunnels.
Moreover, B said that the outpatient building bore signs that hostages and bodies had been held there before the Shaldag force entered the grounds. He said that you could even smell the odor of bodies that had been removed.
The Shaldag forces said they did not know how, when, or to where Hamas forces had fled.
Apparently, no forces were positioned to thwart the flight of these forces, and many believe that Hamas left long before the IDF started its five-day siege of Shifa.
B said that his Shaldag forces also operated substantially in the North against Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the Shin Bet on Monday released excerpts of its interrogation of two Hamas terrorists who kidnapped foreign Thai and Nepalese workers from Israel on October 7 and used ambulances to smuggle them to Shifa Hospital.
Footage of the interrogations of Adham and Ismail Hawwas show how they penetrated southern Israel to take part in the slaughter and mass hostage-taking.
In the interrogations, they describe how they brought the hostages into Shifa, confirming a video distributed by the Shin Bet earlier this month showing one hostage being led in on foot, and another on a stretcher, brought in with multiple wounds.
The two detainees remarked that three Hamas operatives were always inside or outside the room in which a hostage was kept