Shocking facts have been revealed regarding Friday's incident related to a massive air raid performed by the Israeli military on one of the mosques in Gaza's Beit Hanoun city, in which several alleged Hamas members have taken refuge. Two Palestinian women have allegedly been killed as they answered an appeal released by Hamas to defend the men inside the mosque and gathered to help them flee, forming a "human shield", the BBC informs.

In what has been termed later as a dramatic rescue, a Hamas radio station issued an appeal to local women to head towards a mosque in which at least 15 Palestinian men had taken refuge, as Israeli ground and air troops surrounded the perimeter. According to the BBC Arabic Service, one of the women who took part in the unusual operation, Nahed Abou Harbiya, recalled: "All the women headed to the mosque to get the Palestinian resistance men... But the Israeli occupation forces were firing heavily at us with their machine guns and also threw stun grenades at us. We entered the mosque and indeed we got all the resistance men out and put female attire on them so that the Israeli occupation forces wouldn't arrest them".

However, as the Israeli women drew nearer to the Israeli forces, they were met by a volley of gunfire and -as some of them attempted to pass through the troops - the fire intensified and two women were killed. In addition to this, at least 10 women and one Palestinian cameraman were seriously injured. In the end, the Hamas radio station reported that all of the Palestinian militants managed to escape the mosque unharmed.

The news and details about the incident related to the escape made by the Palestinian gunmen dressed in women's garments were confirmed by a spokeswoman for the Israeli forces, Avital Leibovich. "We saw crowds of women. Behind the women hid some of the militants. Some of them were even dressed up as women: we have footage. Unfortunately because the militants shot at our forces, sometimes we had to respond", she was quoted by the BBC as saying.

According to a BBC correspondent in Jerusalem, Matthew Price, the television footage does indeed show the fact that some men were dressed as Palestinian women, but it is still unclear if those men were armed or not.