Israel Defence Forces say it's targeting Hamas command centre, calls for militants to surrender
The Israeli military said it was carrying out a raid on Wednesday against Hamas militants in the Al-Shifa Hospital complex, having urged them to surrender with thousands of Palestinian civilians still sheltering inside Gaza Strip's biggest hospital.
Less than an hour earlier, at about 1 a.m. local time, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said Israel had told officials in the enclave that it would raid the complex "in the coming minutes."
Dr. Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Gaza Health Ministry, told Al Jazeera television that Israeli forces had raided the western side of the medical complex. "There are big explosions and dust entered the areas where we are. We believe an explosion occurred inside the hospital," al-Bursh said.
Global calls for a humanitarian ceasefire have mounted in recent days, and the fate of Al-Shifa — a sprawling complex of buildings and courtyards a few hundred metres from Gaza City's small fishing port — has become a focus of international alarm because of worsening conditions in the facility, where thousands of patients, medical staff and displaced people have been trapped during the Israeli assault on Gaza .
Israel has said that Hamas has a command centre underneath Al-Shifa and uses the hospital and tunnels beneath it to conceal military operations and to hold hostages, which Hamas denies.
In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said: "Based on intelligence information and an operational necessity, IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Al-Shifa Hospital."
The military said: "The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians."
"We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don't want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire," said a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, who did not wish to be named.
"Hospitals and patients must be protected," the spokesperson said.
Hamas, Gaza's ruling Islamist group, denies fighters are present at the facility and says 650 patients and 5,000 to 7,000 other displaced civilians remain trapped inside the hospital grounds, under constant fire from snipers and drones. It says 40 patients have died in recent days, including three premature babies whose incubators were shut down when power went out.
The group said on Tuesday that it holds the White House partially responsible for Israel's raid, saying the "adoption of the false narrative" that Hamas is using the hospital for military purposes was a "green light" for the IDF to carry out the operation.
Israel has sworn to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the militants' cross-border assault into Israel on Oct 7. Israel says Hamas killed 1,200 people in the rampage and took more than 240 hostage.
Israeli forces have waged fierce street battles against Hamas fighters over the past 10 days before advancing into the centre of Gaza City and surrounding Al-Shifa.
'Dramatic loss of life'
Medical staff have said the hospital is barely functioning due to Israeli attacks and a lack of fuel to power generators.
Officials say 36 babies are left from the neo-natal ward after three died. Without fuel for generators to power incubators, the babies were being kept as warm as possible, lined up eight to a bed.
Palestinians trapped in the hospital dug a mass grave on Tuesday to bury patients who died, and no plan was in place to evacuate babies despite Israel announcing an offer to send portable incubators, Ashraf Al-Qidra, Gaza's Health Ministry spokesperson, said.
0 Comments