KHAN YOUNIS (Gaza Strip) — The Israeli military raided Gaza’s largest hospital early Wednesday, carrying out what it called a “precise and directed operation against Hamas in a specific area” of the facility, which was the site of a confrontation with Hamas. The ruling extremist group.
The Israeli authorities claim that the militants are hiding military operations at Al-Shifa Hospital. But with hundreds of patients and medical workers inside, the army declined entry.
In recent weeks, the Israel Defense Forces has publicly warned that such use of the hospital “jeopardizes its protected status under international law,” the military said. On Tuesday, military officials again informed Gaza authorities that all military activities at the hospital must stop within 12 hours.
“Unfortunately, that did not happen,” the army said.
Hamas denied Israeli accusations that it was using the hospital for shelter.
Israeli military officials did not provide further details but said they were taking steps to avoid harming civilians.
The operation came after the army took control of northern Gaza on Tuesday, including control of the Strip’s Legislative Council building and the police headquarters, in gains that had high symbolic value as the country seeks to crush Hamas.
Meanwhile, Israeli defense officials said they had agreed to allow some fuel shipments into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian operations. This is the first time Israel has allowed fuel into the besieged area since Hamas’ bloody cross-border invasion on October 7.
Inside some of the captured buildings, soldiers raised the Israeli flag and military flags in celebration. In a press conference broadcast on national television, Defense Minister Yoav Galant said that Hamas had “lost control” of northern Gaza and that Israel had made significant gains in Gaza City.
But when asked about the time frame of the war, Gallant said: “We are talking about many months, not a day or two.”
An Israeli commander in Gaza, named only as Lt. Col. Gilad, said in a video that his forces near Al-Shifa Hospital seized government buildings, schools and residential buildings, where they found weapons and eliminated fighters.
The army said it took control of the Legislative Council, the Hamas police headquarters, and a complex housing the Hamas military intelligence headquarters. Buildings are powerful symbols, but their strategic value was not clear. It is believed that Hamas fighters are stationed in underground bunkers.
For several days, the Israeli army surrounded the area Al-Shifa Hospital. Hundreds of patients, staff and displaced people have been trapped inside, with dwindling supplies and no electricity to run incubators and other life-saving equipment. After days without refrigeration, morgue staff on Tuesday dug a mass grave in the courtyard for more than 120 bodies, officials said.
Elsewhere, the Palestinian Red Crescent announced on Tuesday that it had evacuated patients, doctors and displaced families from the Other Jerusalem Hospital in Gaza City.
Israel pledged to end Hamas’ rule in Gaza after the October 7 attack on Israel carried out by militants. About 1,200 people were killed Nearly 240 hostages were taken. The Israeli government admitted that it does not know what it will do with the Gaza Strip after the defeat of Hamas.
The Israeli attack – one of the heaviest bombing operations so far this century – has been disastrous for Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians.
A Palestinian child injured in the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip is taken to a hospital in Deir al-Balah on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
More than 11,200 people, two-thirds of them women and minors, were killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah. About 2,700 people were reported missing. Ministry statistics No difference Among the dead among civilians and soldiers.
Almost all of Gaza’s population has shrunk to the southern two-thirds of the small strip, where conditions have deteriorated even as bombing continues there. The United Nations said on Tuesday that about 200,000 people had fled the north in recent days, but tens of thousands were believed to remain.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced on Tuesday that its fuel depot in Gaza has become empty and that it will soon end relief operations, including bringing humanitarian aid. Limited supplies of food and medicine From Egypt for more than 600,000 people taking refuge in schools and other facilities in the south.
“Without fuel, the humanitarian operation in Gaza is coming to an end. Many people will suffer and are likely to die,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General.
Israeli defense officials, who had repeatedly refused to allow fuel into Gaza saying Hamas would divert it for military use, changed course early Wednesday. Officials said that Israel will allow about 24,000 liters (6,340 gallons) of fuel into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian operations.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli defense agency responsible for Palestinian affairs, said UN trucks would be allowed to refuel at the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border later on Wednesday. She said that the decision came in response to a request from the United States
The plight of hospitals
Smoke rising from an explosion in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, November 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
The director of Al-Shifa Hospital in downtown Gaza City said in a statement that fighting has raged for days around the Al-Shifa Hospital complex in downtown Gaza City, which “has now turned into a cemetery.”
The Ministry of Health said that 40 patients, including three children, had died since the emergency generator at Al-Shifa Hospital ran out of fuel on Saturday. The Ministry stated that 36 other children were at risk of death due to the lack of electricity for incubators.
The Israeli army said it had begun an effort to transfer the incubators to Al-Shifa Hospital. Christian Lindmeier, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, said it would be useless without electricity.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said that the ministry proposed evacuating the hospital under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross and transferring patients to hospitals in Egypt, but it did not receive any response.
While Israel says it is prepared to allow staff and patients to evacuate, some Palestinians who managed to get out say Israeli forces opened fire on the evacuees.
Israel says it claims the existence of a Hamas command center In and under healing It is based on intelligence, but no visual evidence has been provided to support it. The Gaza Ministry of Health denied these allegations and said it had called on international organizations to investigate the facility.
Palestinian Red Crescent officials said that the evacuation operation at Al-Quds Hospital came after “more than 10 days of siege, during which medical and humanitarian supplies were prevented from reaching the hospital.”
In a post on X, they blamed the Israeli army for bombing the hospital and shooting those inside.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the United States has unspecified intelligence that Hamas and other Palestinian militants are using Al-Shifa Hospital and other hospitals and tunnels underneath them to support military operations and take hostages.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the intelligence was based on multiple sources and that the United States collected the information independently.
Kirby said the United States does not support air strikes on hospitals and does not want to see “a gun battle in a hospital where innocent people” are trying to get care.
March for hostages
Families and supporters of about 240 people held hostage by Hamas began a protest march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The plight of the hostages has dominated public discourse since the October 7 attack, with solidarity protests organized across the country. Marchers, who expect to arrive in Jerusalem on Saturday, say the government must do more to bring their loved ones home.
“Where are you?” Shelly Shem-Tov, whose 21-year-old son, Omar, is among the captives, called Netanyahu. “We have no power anymore. We have no power. Bring our children and families back home.”
Battle in Gaza City
It was almost impossible to gather independent accounts of the fighting in Gaza City, as communications to the north had largely collapsed.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hajari said that Israeli forces have completed control of the Beach refugee camp, a densely built-up area on the border with central Gaza City, and are moving freely throughout the city.
Videos released by the Israeli army show forces moving through the city, firing at buildings. Bulldozers push buildings down while tanks advance through streets lined with partially collapsed towers.
The videos depict a battle in which forces root out pockets of Hamas fighters and demolish buildings where they find them, while gradually dismantling the group’s tunnel network.
Palestinians inspect a damaged building following an Israeli military raid on the West Bank town of Tulkarm, Tuesday, November 14, 2023. At least seven Palestinians were killed overnight during an Israeli raid, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said Tuesday. The Israeli army said that it killed a number of activists during an exchange of fire. Associated Press photo/Magdy Mohamed)
Israel says it has killed several thousand fighters, including important mid-level commanders, while 46 of its soldiers were killed in Gaza.
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Jeffrey and Keith reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Amy Table in Jerusalem and Wafaa al-Shurafa in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip; Sami Magdy from Cairo contributed to this report.
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Complete AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
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