Amid the competing images posted in the social media war over Israel’s response to the October slaughter of more than 1,200 people, captivating photos and videos show rows of men who surrendered to Israel in Gaza.
The Times of Israel said Hamas terrorists are believed to be among the men, who have been stripped to their underwear.
It described men seen kneeling in a street as captives taken in the Jabaliya area of Gaza who surrendered to the Israeli Defense Forces on Thursday. The men in some photos are blindfolded.
One video shows men sitting on a street, apparently waiting to be loaded into a truck. In that video, the poster gave thanks “for letting the Jewish people start Hanukah with a smile.”
Thank you Hashem for letting the Jewish people start Hanukah with a smile thanks to this mass surrender of Hamas terrorists in Gaza. This should be the first of many! Thank you, IDF! ????❤️ pic.twitter.com/ECEu4j7dUu
— Hillel Fuld (@HilzFuld) December 7, 2023
Mass surrender of Hamas terrorists in Khan Younis pic.twitter.com/rK3UVCdyhi
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) December 7, 2023
A post on social media platform X identified the area where the photos were taken as the city of Khan Younis. One of the posts had been viewed more than 3.9 million times.
In his Thursday briefing, IDF representative Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the IDF was “intensifying the fight against Hamas’s strongholds in the southern and northern parts of the Gaza Strip. We are in the midst of a stubborn war along the entire Strip.”
He said Israeli units “arrested and questioned hundreds of terror suspects. Many of them, even in the past day, are surrendering themselves to us. The intelligence we gather from the questioning aids us in the continued fight. We are determined to dismantle Hamas, but the way is still long.”
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the military has broken through Hamas’s defenses in northern Gaza’s Shejaiya and Jabaliya, as well as in Khan Younis in the southern part of the Strip, which was announced earlier.
“In the last 48 hours, in Jabaliya, Shejaiya, and Khan…
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) December 6, 2023
In a comment posted to X by Times of Israel reporter Emmanuel Fabian, Hagaari said “Jabaliya and Shejaiya are ‘centers of gravity’ … for terrorists, and we are fighting them.”
“They are hiding underground and come out and we fight them. Whoever is left in those areas, they come out from tunnel shafts, and some from buildings, and we investigate who is linked to Hamas, and who isn’t. We arrest them all and interrogate them,” he said.
As Israel pressed forward into Gaza, the IDF charged Hamas with using humanitarian zones in Gaza as launching sites to send rockets into Israel on Wednesday, according to the Times of Israel.
Rocket impact reported in the Beersheba area, damage caused. pic.twitter.com/ZL5PZYTj2f
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) December 6, 2023
“At 3:59 p.m., Hamas terrorists launched 12 rockets toward Israeli civilians in the city of Beersheba in southern Israel. The rockets were launched from near tents of evacuated Gazan civilians in Rafah in southern Gaza and from next to United Nations facilities,” the IDF said in a statement.
No injuries were reported in the attack.
Three hours earlier, it said, another rocket was fired “from inside a humanitarian zone. The rocket misfired, putting many Gazan civilians at risk.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.