by Pesach Benson
While “residents of the sector were forced to break their Ramadan fast with the scraps left by Hamas, the organization’s leaders were celebrating in the tunnels with a grand feast,” Adraee said.
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The IDF on Thursday published photos showing Hamas Rafah Brigade commander Muhammad Shabana dining underground with fellow operatives in March, weeks before he was killed in a targeted strike in Khan Yunis.
According to the IDF, the images were recovered at the site of the May 13 airstrike that eliminated Shabana and senior Hamas figure Mohammed Sinwar beneath Gaza’s European Hospital. They depict Shabana and other operatives enjoying a Ramadan iftar meal inside a tunnel, with platters of falafel, grilled meats, fish, vegetables, flatbreads, and fried foods. Additional photos show him eating with his family during the past year.
“Luxurious breakfast and lavish meals during the war: This is what the life of the terrorist commander of Hamas’ Rafah Brigade looked like over the past year,” wrote Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, on X.
#خاص 🔴 إفطار فاخر ووجبات فخمة خلال الحرب: هكذا كانت تبدو حياة الارهابي قائد لواء رفح في حماس خلال السنة الماضية
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) September 4, 2025
⭕️يكشف جيش الدفاع صورًا تُظهر كمية الطعام الكبيرة التي كانت بحوزة قائد لواء رفح المدعو محمد شبانة الذي تمت تصفيته مع المدعو محمد السنوار تحت المستشفى الأوروبي في شهر… pic.twitter.com/PdOSN3B0pE
He added that while “residents of the sector were forced to break their Ramadan fast with the scraps left by Hamas, the organization’s leaders were celebrating in the tunnels with a grand feast.”
Adraee further accused Hamas of manipulating public opinion. “With one hand, Hamas runs a media campaign about ‘starvation’ in the sector, and with the other, it plunders food to feed its leaders and their families. Time and again—the images, unlike Hamas and its mouthpieces in the media, do not lie,” he said.
Shabana, who took command of the Rafah Brigade during the 2014 Gaza war after the killing of three senior commanders, oversaw four battalions, including the Nukhba unit that spearheaded the October 7 massacre in southern Israel. He had previously survived multiple assassination attempts, including during the IDF’s ground operation in Rafah.
His death came in a complex strike involving more than 50 precision munitions dropped in under 30 seconds, designed to destroy Hamas’ underground command site without disrupting the hospital above. Israel confirmed the deaths of Shabana and Sinwar three weeks after the operation.
Study by Israeli academics argues claims of genocide in Gaza based on flawed data
The release of the photos came one day after a study conducted by Israeli academics argued that claims of genocide in Gaza are based on flawed data and ultimately undermine international law.The report, released by Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, said, “Those who accuse Israel of genocide erroneously suggest that most civilian casualties in Gaza were entirely unjustified from a military standpoint, portraying those cases in which deaths do seem unjustified not as outliers but as part of a broader, systematic, and deliberate policy of extermination by the IDF. The small number of instances involving persuasive supportive evidence of intentional killings by military personnel does not support this accusation.”
The researchers extensively examined Hamas tactics, arguing that the group “consistently employs Gazan civilians as ‘human shields’ to deliberately increase casualties and, in turn, amplify international pressure on Israel.” They described Hamas’s tunnel network as spanning “over 500 kilometers and includ[ing] 5,700 connective shafts, all integrated into the civilian infrastructure of the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas and criminal gangs associated with it hijacked 85% of all the trucks entering the Strip with food, water, medicine, and other humanitarian items. TPS-IL learned that Hamas granted distribution lines to these groups to ensure that humanitarian aid exclusively reaches Hamas. In return, these gangs receive money, food, and vouchers. Hamas also pays these gangs $10,000 a month to maintain checkpoints.
Approximately 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 48 remaining hostages, about 20 are believed to be alive.
Pesach Benson
Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-866354
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