Israel Defence Force reaches Hamas’s Gaza hospital headquarters
Israel’s military has entered Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital complex in a dramatic attempt to destroy Hamas forces while trying to protect more than 2000 patients, doctors and people sheltering there.
Israel’s military has entered Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital complex in a dramatic, high-risk attempt to destroy Hamas forces while trying to protect more than 2000 patients, doctors and people sheltering there.
In one of the most critical moments of the Israel-Hamas war, the Israel Defence Forces said it was carrying out a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas” in a specified area of the al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest.
The operation came only hours after the White House independently confirmed Israel’s claims that Hamas was running a command and control centre in tunnels under the hospital, describing it as a war crime.
Israel’s move to enter the complex follows reports of patients dying in squalid conditions as the hospital runs out of fuel and medicine, including anaesthetic, with scant supplies of food and water.
The military operation inside the hospital also carries a high risk of patients, doctors and civilians being caught in the crossfire, which could trigger an international backlash against Israel.
Medical staff at the hospital complex, which the UN estimates has around 2300 patients, doctors and displaced persons, reported hearing gunfire and explosions outside as Israeli forces moved closer.
“We were hearing gunshots hitting the wall of the building, and now we’re all in the corridors because it’s totally unsafe … all the glass was broken in the area at the front of the hospital,” one surgeon at al-Shifa, Ahmed Mokhallalati, said.
The IDF said the operation at al-Shifa was “not designed to harm the hospital, the medical teams or civilians there” and was “preceded by efforts to evacuate the hospital of patients and a special safe passage was opened for this purpose”.
It said the hospital management was informed in advance of Israel’s entry to the complex.
“Later in the operation, we expect to transfer incubators, medical equipment and food for infants to the hospital,” it said.
Israel says an attack on the hospital is not a war crime because Hamas is using doctors and patients as human shields to conduct its military campaign against Israel.
But the US has warned Israel to spare hospitals from airstrikes and to avoid any action that could see patients and doctors caught up in fighting.
“We do not support striking a hospital from the air,” White House spokesman John Kirby said.
“And we do not want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people, are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve, not to be caught in a crossfire.
“Hospitals and patients must be protected.”
But Mr Kirby said US intelligence had also independently verified that Hamas “use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including al-Shifa, and tunnels underneath them, to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages”.
“We have information that confirms that Hamas is using that particular hospital for a command and control node and probably storage of equipment weapons up underneath,” he said.
“That is a war crime.”
Hamas denied it had military operations at the hospital and accused the White House of giving a green light to Israel, saying it held the Israeli army and US President Joe Biden “fully responsible” for the raid.
“The White House and the Pentagon’s adoption of the false (Israeli) narrative, claiming that the resistance is using al-Shifa medical complex for military purposes, was a green light for the occupation to commit more massacres against civilians,” Hamas said.
The situation inside the hospital was becoming increasingly desperate, with hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya saying “there are bodies littered in the hospital complex and there is no longer electricity at the morgues”.
“We were forced to bury them in a mass grave,” he said, estimating that 179 bodies had been interred so far, including seven newborns who died when incubators lost power.
The Israeli military was able to enter the hospital grounds after making strong gains in Gaza City, where its forces seized control of Hamas’s government buildings, including the parliament and its police headquarters.
Israel Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israeli forces now controlled “the aboveground area” of the northern Gaza Strip, which they had surrounded.
“In northern Gaza, Hamas has lost control,” he said.
Israel has not yet conquered the labyrinth of tunnels built by Hamas, which it uses to move its fighters and supplies and where it is believed many of the 239 Israeli hostages are being held.
The US is involved in negotiations with Israel, Qatar and Hamas on a potential agreement to free at least some of the hostages in the coming days.
Asked what his message to the hostages would be, Mr Biden replied: “Hang in there. We’re coming.”
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