New details about the IDF operation in Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza were revealed on Tuesday, with an IDF official telling Army Radio that “we’re sitting on a gold mine” regarding the intelligence information they gleaned from hundreds of detained terrorists, most of whom turned themselves in.

As of Wednesday morning, IDF forces arrested over 250 identified terrorists affiliated with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, including a senior terrorist behind the abduction and murder of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer, and Naftali Fraenkel in 2014, Hamas battalion commanders, political officials, and Islamic Jihad operatives, possibly including a senior officer. About 90 terrorists who opened fire at the Israeli forces were killed. The IDF is currently interrogating another 350 terror suspects.

Additional terrorists are still holed up in the hospital’s emergency room, using patients and medical personnel as human shields.

According to an Army Radio report, the IDF is using an entire corridor in the hospital to hold the terrorists, which is serving as a temporary detention facility for the military intelligence and Shin Bet to interrogate the terrorists and obtain valuable intelligence information as quickly as possible.

“We’re sitting on a gold mine,” an IDF official told Army Radio.

Some of the intelligence has already been implemented; several Air Force attacks on terror targets in Gaza were carried out thanks to information gleaned from the terrorists in Shifa.

Among those detained are Islamic Jihad terrorists who fired rockets at Sderot in recent days. One of them said during his interrogation: “We’re part of a rocket array unit – we fired at Sderot and returned to Shifa because we knew it was safe.”

Dozens of terrorists told investigators; “We were surprised. We didn’t think that the IDF would return to Shifa. At the very least, we thought we would have enough warning to escape in time.”

One terrorist said: “If I had known the IDF would return to Shifa, I wouldn’t be here. The night I heard the tanks and APCs outside, I realized the only way I would get out of here is as a prisoner or dead.”

IDF forces found and seized a trove of Hamas military archives and intelligence that were stored at the hospital. Among other things, they found folders of documents containing sensitive IDF information that Hamas stole on October 7th.

The IDF believes that Hamas may have been trying to re-dig the underground tunnel system under Shifa which was destroyed by the IDF several months ago.

The video below shows IDF commandos operating at Shifa and the seizure of weapons discovered in the hospital.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)