IDF troops continue to move through Sajawiya house by house. Among the things that have been discovered in this activity (besides eliminating Hamas terrorists) are:
Confirmation of the deaths of more hostages (and recovery of their bodies).
Weapons and ammunition
Kevlar protective vests and helmets
Rockets, including those big 122mm GRADs
Maps, recordings, and documents of intelligence value
The clearance operations have not resulted in the rescue of any hostages. Despite feelers for a new round of exchanges (denied by both sides), many people fear that the reason Hamas had not made new overtures is because many, if not all, the remaining captives may no longer be alive.
The Hamas fake news team has come up with a new lie. They said all the women captured at the Supernova music event were actually soldiers. That might even be good news, considering what horrific atrocities they committed on the female soldiers in the operations center. The 15 that were killed there were subjected to torture and dismemberment before and after their deaths.
The US is sending a stream of high level representatives to Israel in order to keep abreast of developments. This has nothing to do with the American military teams that have been here to learn about how the IDF handles terrorists (and combines operations with efforts to avoid civilian casualties).
An IDF spokesperson recently enumerated some of the ways the IDF tries to avoid harming innocent civilians:
Non-combatants are told in advance to leave areas where the IDF will be operating. What military tells the enemy where the next attack will take place?
“Safe routes” are shown on printed leaflets dropped in populated areas.
The same routes are shown in posts on social media (for those with PCs or smart phones).
Loudspeakers are used so that Arabic speaking IDF personnel can tell the civilians to leave, and how.
Other Arabic speaking IDF personnel have placed tens of thousands of telephone calls to Gaza residents to warn them to leave.
IDF troops have been stationed near the withdrawal routes to ensure the civilians are protected. The first time a “safe route” was declared, Hamas fired small arms and mortars to try to force the civilians back. If they were to try to do that again they would expose their position to an IDF drone or air strike, called in by the protective units.
Wetherhorn 