IDF claims it killed 170 Hamas terrorists, captures 800 in Al-Shifa Hospital raid

Israeli forces claim to have killed more than 170 Hamas terrorists since Monday in its ongoing takedown of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters staked out in and around Gaza’s main hospital.

In addition to the slain terrorists, a post to the Israel Defense Force’s X account Saturday said over 800 more suspects were taken into custody throughout the extended raid on Al-Shifa Hospital.

Israeli fighters also “located many weapons and terrorist infrastructure” during the operation, the post said.

On Friday, Israeli fighter jets also “attacked about 35 terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip,” the IDF claimed, “including operational headquarters, military positions, infrastructures of the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and aid targets for the maneuvering forces.”

In other developments:

–Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said he believes the United States will soon turn its back on Israel and withdraw its support of the nation’s ongoing war with Hamas, which will soon enter its sixth month.

“United States’ long-standing ambition to dominate the region has been undermined by the resilience of the Axis of Resistance,” Khamenei said, the Jerusalem Post reported. “The United States is now left with no option but to withdraw from the region.”

Khamenei warned Saudi Arabia against forging ties with Jerusalem, and predicted that Israel will soon be eradicated by the Palestinians.

“This cancer will certainly, God willing, be eradicated by the hands of the Palestinian people and the resistance forces throughout the region,” he said, according to the Times of Israel.

–UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the Rafah crossing in Egypt on Saturday, where he renewed pleas for an immediate ceasefire. After witnessing a long line of relief trucks being blocked from crossing into the Gaza Strip, Guterres called the situation a “moral outrage,” Al Jazeera reported.

U.S. fighter jets led strikes on three underground storage facilities, all located within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Friday, a U.S. official told ABC News.

It was unclear if anyone was killed or injured in the strikes. U.S. forces also destroyed four drones within the same region of Yemen.

—The Times of Israel reported that Hezbollah used a pair of drones to damage an Iron Dome battery near Kfar Blum, just south of the border with Lebanon. Israeli officials said the strikes caused a fire, but did not injure or kill anyone on the ground.