Israel rounds up Hamas suspects and strips them down in public on streets of Gaza
Hamas suspects were stripped down in Gaza
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Dozens of Palestinian men alleged to be associated with Hamas were stripped down and paraded in Gaza, according to images shared by Israeli media.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) rounded up men who are said to have surrendered in the Jabalia refugee camp.
It is claimed that the men were stripped down to their underwear in order to "rule out the possibility that they were carrying weapons".
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari appeared to confirm the reports, stating that suspects in Gaza had been rounded up and interrogated.
WATCH: Israel gives tour of Hamas terror base
Hagari said: "Jabalia and Shejaiya are 'centres 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."
Israel said it needed to check the men did not have guns
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The men are said to have surrendered to Israel’s 261st Reserve Brigade.
It comes as Israel continues to mount its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, vowing to eradicate the terror network from the area.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinian civilians were forced to to cram into a city close to the Egyptian border to avoid Israeli bombardment.
However, many feared they would not be safe in Rafah either with their options for refuge dwindling, and at least nine people were killed on Wednesday in the Israeli shelling of a house in the city, Palestinian medical sources said.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians already fled from northern Gaza to the south during the two-month-old war between Israel and the Palestinian enclave's ruling Islamist militant movement that Israel is trying to wipe out.
The latest exodus leaves many displaced Palestinians increasingly cornered near the fortified Egyptian border, in an area that has been deemed safe by Israel's military in leaflets dropped by its aircraft as well as phone and online messages.
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