image source, Getty Images
The Israeli army said that its forces raided the Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza, in an operation that Palestinian health authorities said led to the death of a number of victims and ignited a severe fire in one of the buildings. The Israeli army stated that it had completely taken control of the hospital. The army later announced that a soldier had been killed during the military operation.
The army added, according to what Reuters news agency reported, that the soldiers were carrying out a “precise operation,” and that they were fired upon when they entered the compound.
The statement said, “The forces responded with live ammunition and identified the casualties. They continue to work in the hospital area.”
The army statement stated that the operation was based on intelligence information indicating that senior Hamas leaders were using the hospital.
The Israeli army said it arrested more than 80 people, including Hamas activists, during a night raid on the hospital.
He added that he raided the hospital after receiving intelligence information indicating that Hamas activists had regrouped and set up a command center in the facility. She added that she had taken control of the complex.
The army said that the forces received instructions on the importance of working with caution, and on the measures that must be taken to avoid harming patients, civilians, medical personnel and medical equipment, adding that patients are not required to evacuate the place.
The army statement said, “Arabic-speaking people were brought to the site to facilitate communication with patients,” noting that “patients and medical staff are not obligated to evacuate.” Israeli Channel 13 said that the army “found no Israeli hostages in the hospital.”
What did witnesses and residents say?
Eyewitnesses and local sources confirmed to the BBC that Israeli army forces stormed the Shifa Medical Complex west of Gaza City at dawn today, amid violent air and artillery bombardment and intense gunfire inside and around the complex.
Tanks and heavy military vehicles entered the complex’s courtyards, trapping thousands inside the hospital’s rooms and corridors, including hundreds of patients, medical personnel, and thousands of displaced people.
Eyewitnesses added that Israeli warplanes bombed throughout the dawn hours several buildings and homes surrounding the medical complex, and that tanks surrounded three schools in the area that also housed thousands of displaced people, and there were also besieged in the streets and residential neighborhoods in the area located west of Gaza City.
Agence France-Presse reported from eyewitnesses that “air operations” took place in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, where the hospital is located.
Residents of this neighborhood said that “more than 45 Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers” entered the sand.
Some also spoke of “battles” that took place around the hospital. The Israeli army addresses residents via loudspeakers, asking them to stay in their homes.
Eyewitnesses added that “drones targeted people in the streets near the hospital.”
What did Hamas say?
Hamas condemned the hospital raid, describing it as “aggression and a new crime.”
The movement said in a statement published Monday on its Telegram channel on March 18 that Israel “directly targeted” the hospital buildings “without any regard for the patients, medical staff, and displaced people inside.”
The Gaza Ministry of Health said that a fire broke out at the entrance to the complex, leading to suffocation cases among displaced women and children in the hospital.
She added that communications were cut off, and that people were trapped inside the surgical and emergency units in one of the buildings.
The ministry said: There are “dead and wounded, and it is impossible to save anyone due to the intensity of the fire and the targeting of everyone who approaches the windows,” accusing the army forces of “another crime targeting health institutions.”
image source, Reuters
Previous attack on the hospital
Israel was subjected to severe criticism last year when its forces raided the hospital for the first time, saying they had discovered tunnels nearby, claiming that Hamas was using them as command and control centers.
The Israeli army entered the Al-Shifa complex on November 15, and the facility is currently operating at its bare minimum and with a minimum number of employees.
After that major operation, the Israeli army said that it found “ammunition, weapons and military equipment” for Hamas in Al-Shifa Hospital, which the Islamic movement denied.
The Israeli army also stated that it had discovered a 55-meter-long tunnel that it said was being used for “terrorist purposes” under Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, and called on journalists to inspect it.
The Shifa Complex in Gaza City is one of the few remaining health facilities in the besieged Strip, and the Israeli army has long accused the Islamist Hamas movement of using it as a base for its fighters.
Hamas and hospital officials denied these accusations.
The hospital has been the focus of war crimes accusations from both sides, with the Palestinians accusing Israel of targeting hospitals, and Israel saying the sites are being used to shelter armed fighters.
Since the beginning of the war, the Israeli army has launched military operations in several hospitals in the Gaza Strip. He accuses Hamas of using health facilities as command centers.
The United Nations says that less than a third of hospitals in the Gaza Strip are currently only partially functioning.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Monday that the death toll in the Gaza Strip had risen to 31,726 people.
Most of them are children and women since the start of the war on Gaza on October 7th.
“Gaza is in a state of famine”
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday that Israel is deliberately creating famine in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war, an accusation rejected by the Israeli Foreign Minister.
“In Gaza, we are no longer on the brink of famine,” Borrell said at the opening of a conference on humanitarian aid to Gaza in Brussels. “We are in a state of famine that affects thousands of people.”
He added: “This is unacceptable. Famine is being used as a weapon of war. Israel is causing famine.”
In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Katz urged Borrell to “stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to self-defense against Hamas’ crimes.”
Katz said in a post on the website United.
The head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said today that hunger in the Gaza Strip is “man-made.”
UNRWA Director General Philippe Lazzarini added during a press conference in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry that the crisis can be resolved and its direction changed through appropriate political will, and Gaza can be “flooded” with food through the crossings.
The death toll of Palestinians and Israelis increases
The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Monday that the death toll in the Gaza Strip had risen to 31,726, most of them children and women, since the start of the war on Gaza on October 7th.
The ministry stated that the Israeli army committed what it described as eight “massacres” in the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours, leaving 81 dead and 116 injured.
The Israeli army announced on Monday that a soldier was killed during the military operation at Al-Shifa Medical Hospital in the Gaza Strip.
This brings the number of those killed to 593 since the start of the war and 250 since the beginning of the ground military operation in the Gaza Strip.
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