Israeli forces say their 162nd Division — which entered Gaza from the north — has completed the capture of al-Shati camp and will soon link up with the 36th Division that entered the Strip from the east, reaching the coast.

The IDF says al-Shati was a major Hamas stronghold. “Inside the camp there is a lot of hostile infrastructure and a lot of Hamas forces were concentrated there, including the al-Sati Brigade, which took a central part in [επιθέσεις] of October 7”, it states.

The 162nd Division had been pushed south from northern Gaza when the ground operation began two and a half weeks ago, heading towards Gaza City and has faced resistance in the al-Shati camp in recent days.

There have been at least four clashes with Hamas operatives in al-Shati in the past few hours. According to the military, almost every other house in the camp was riddled with explosions.

Some 150,000 to 200,000 Palestinians are estimated to have fled the camp as Israeli troops moved in. The division’s troops fought about 200 Hamas operatives in al-Shati.

The military believes it has full control of al-Sati, although there may still be incidents. He says Hamas’ command and control systems in the region were completely dismantled during the raids.

The 162nd Division is now working to methodically clear the al-Shati area of ​​any Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels and weapons caches.

The IDF is also criticizing the division’s other operations in northern Gaza, saying it dealt “significant blows” to Hamas’ infrastructure and operational capabilities.

According to the IDF, the division found and destroyed more than 160 tunnel shafts, hit about 2,800 Hamas sites and killed about 1,000 terrorists and senior commanders.

The division raided and captured what the IDF says are Hamas’ “strategic and key assets” in northern Gaza, including the stronghold of Outpost 17, the so-called “military quarter” of Gaza City, Rantisi Hospital — which the Israelis suspected to have been used by Hamas to hold Israeli hostages — and the Bader outpost.

It says the division’s 401st Armored Brigade and the Givati ​​Infantry Brigade led the maneuver in al-Shati, destroying dozens of Hamas sites with tank bombardments and calling in airstrikes.

The division’s Nahal Infantry Brigade, meanwhile, captured Hamas’ main outpost in al-Shati and destroyed its infrastructure, killing terrorists in the process and detaining others for questioning by the Shin Bet in Israel, the IDF says.

The division’s Commando Brigade was operating in the northern part of al-Shati to track down terrorists. It also ventured deeper into the camp, destroying Hamas infrastructure and raiding buildings used by the terror group, including a school where Israeli soldiers say soldiers found an anti-tank missile launch site and a weapons cache.

The commander of the 162nd Tax Division. General Itzik Cohen hailed the operations, saying the military was “dismantling the centers of mass and capabilities of Hamas that the organization has built up over the years.”

“The division’s forces have killed over 1,000 terrorists since the beginning of the ground maneuver and reduced the amount of rockets fired at Israel from the north of the Gaza Strip by about 80 percent,” adds Cohen.