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Israel Raids Hospital In The Centre Of Gaza War
In their fight against Hamas forces, dozens of Israeli soldiers—some donning facemasks and firing rifles into the air—ransacked a section of Gaza’s largest hospital early on Wednesday. The hospital was full of patients and displaced residents.
Through a megaphone, a soldier said in Arabic to the men who were taking refuge inside the Al-Shifa hospital, which has been the scene of intense urban fighting for days, “All men 16 years and above, raise your hands.”
The soldier gave the order to “exit the building towards the courtyard and surrender,” according to a journalist who sought safety inside the troubled hospital a few days ago and who spoke with AFP.
The military activities that took place at Al-Shifa during the night were reported by both Israeli and Palestinian officials. Al-Shifa has been the center of days of intense fighting and aerial bombardment.
The hospital’s conditions have been characterized by witnesses as horrifying, with families living in the hallways with little access to food or water, medical procedures being done without anesthesia, and the air filled with the stench of decaying bodies.
A few days prior, a strike had damaged the maternity section. Hundreds of young men emerged from other units as Israeli forces dashed through the halls. He said that when they went from room to room searching for Hamas forces, soldiers started firing warning rounds.
The journalist stated that Israeli troops had also entered the main emergency department and other wards and that several Israeli tanks had rolled inside the expansive hospital complex.
It was characterized as “a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the facility by the Israeli army in a statement released early on Wednesday.
In a different statement, the army said that throughout the operation, it had brought medical supplies, baby food, and incubators to the hospital.
The statement read, “Our medical teams and soldiers who speak Arabic are on the ground to ensure that these supplies reach those in need.”
As the Israeli forces continued their search, the Hamas government in Gaza charged them with a “war crime and crime against humanity.”
Israel has surrounded Al-Shifa in northern Gaza for the previous four days, claiming that Hamas was using the buildings as both commanders’ hideouts and command centers.
According to the White House, US intelligence sources supported Israel’s assertion that an operational “command and control node” was buried under Al-Shifa by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another armed group.
In response to the Israeli siege of the Palestinian area, which has lasted for weeks, Hamas has refuted those accusations and emphasized the hardship within the besieged clinic, which has been without fuel for generators or electricity.
At least 2,300 people, including patients, employees, and displaced civilians, were inside, according to a previous statement from the UN, and it’s possible that the intense fighting prevented them from leaving.
40 patients died in Al-Shifa on Tuesday, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, which cited the health ministry in Gaza which is governed by Hamas.
On Tuesday, Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the hospital director, announced that 179 dead had been buried in a mass grave within the compound.