Israel Defense Minister: Hamas’ Northern Battalions Surrendering, Near Collapse

The Hamas battalions in the northern Gaza Strip are near collapse, with many terrorists surrendering and providing intelligence to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said defense minister Yoav Gallant on Monday.

The Times of Israel noted:

“We have encircled the last strongholds of Hamas in Jabaliya and Shejaiya, the battalions that were considered invincible, that prepared for years to fight us, are on the verge of being dismantled,” Gallant says at a press conference.

He says hundreds of Hamas operatives have surrendered to Israeli troops in recent days, which he says “shows what is happening” to the terror group.

“Whoever surrenders — his life is spared,” Gallant says, adding that among those who have been arrested by the IDF are terrorists who participated in the October 7 terror attack on Israeli communities.

Gallant also said that Hamas terrorists who surrendered were providing “interesting” intelligence.

Over the weekend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Hamas terrorists to surrender, telling them it was not worth dying for the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

In related news, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi visited troops in the Gaza Strip to conduct a “situational assessment” with other senior military officials on Monday.
“We are securing our accomplishments in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the entrance in the southern part of the Strip, and also deep down into the ground — all of these places, all of these intensifications, are very important,” he said, in a statement released by the IDF.

He added: “Happy Hanukkah.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.