By NAJIB JOBAIN, JACK JEFFERY and SAMY MAGDY (Associated Press)
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops on Wednesday stormed into Gaza’s largest hospital, trying to find traces of Hamas inside and beneath the ability, the place newborns and a whole bunch of different sufferers have suffered for days with out electrical energy and different fundamental requirements as preventing raged exterior.
Details from the day-long raid remained sketchy, however officers from Israel and Gaza introduced completely different accounts of what was occurring at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City: The Israeli military launched video exhibiting troopers carrying containers labeled as “baby food” and “medical supplies,” whereas well being officers talked of terrified employees and sufferers as troops moved via the buildings.
After encircling Shifa for days, Israel confronted strain to show its declare that Hamas had turned the hospital right into a command heart, utilizing the sufferers, employees and civilians sheltering there to supply cowl for its militants — a part of Israel’s broader accusation that Hamas makes use of Palestinians as human shields. Wednesday night, Israel launched video of weapons it stated it present in one constructing, however up to now its search confirmed no indicators of tunnels or a classy command heart.
Hamas and Gaza well being officers deny militants function in Shifa — a hospital that employs some 1,500 individuals and has greater than 500 beds, based on the Palestinian information company. Palestinians and rights teams say Israel has recklessly endangered civilians because it seeks to eradicate Hamas.
As Israel tightens its maintain on northern Gaza, leaders have talked of increasing the bottom operation into the south to root out Hamas. Already, most of Gaza’s 2.3 million individuals have crowded into the territory’s south, the place a worsening gasoline scarcity threatened to paralyze the supply of humanitarian companies and shut down cell phone and web service.
The battle between Israel and Hamas erupted after the militant group killed some 1,200 individuals and seized round 240 captives in an Oct. 7 assault that shattered Israelis’ sense of safety.
Israeli airstrikes have since killed greater than 11,200 individuals, two-thirds of them girls and minors, based on the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah, which coordinates with the ministry department in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Another 2,700 have been reported lacking, with most believed to be buried underneath the rubble. The ministry’s rely doesn’t differentiate between civilian and militant deaths.
Israeli forces launched their raid into the big Shifa compound round 2 a.m. and remained on the grounds after dusk Wednesday, with tanks stationed exterior and snipers on close by buildings, Munir al-Boursh, a senior official with Gaza’s Health Ministry contained in the hospital, instructed The Associated Press. It was not doable to independently assess the scenario inside.
Al-Boursh stated that for hours, the troops ransacked the basement and different buildings, together with these housing the emergency and surgical procedure departments, and searched the grounds for tunnels. Troops questioned and face-screened sufferers, employees and other people sheltering within the facility, he stated, including that he didn’t know if any had been detained.
“Patients, women and children are terrified,” he stated by cellphone to The Associated Press.
Neither the Palestinians nor the army reported any clashes contained in the hospital. The army stated its troops killed 4 militants exterior the hospital initially of the operation. Throughout days of preventing within the surrounding streets, there was no report of militants firing from inside Shifa.
The Israeli army stated it was finishing up a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the hospital,” and that its troopers had been accompanied by medical groups bringing in incubators and different provides.
It added that forces had been additionally trying to find hostages. The plight of the captives, who embody males, girls and youngsters, has galvanized Israeli help for the battle. Families and supporters of the hostages are holding a protest march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The video launched by the army from inside Shifa confirmed three duffel luggage it stated it discovered hidden round an MRI lab, every containing an assault rifle, grenades and Hamas uniforms, in addition to a closet that contained numerous assault rifles with out ammunition clips. A laptop computer was additionally found and brought for research. The Associated Press couldn’t independently confirm the Israeli claims that the weapons had been discovered contained in the hospital.
“These weapons have absolutely no business being inside a hospital,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a army spokesman, stated within the video, including that he believed the fabric was “just the top of the iceberg.” The army stated the search was persevering with, but it surely didn’t instantly present any signal of tunnels or an intensive army heart.
The raid drew condemnation from U.N., Jordan and the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority, which referred to as it a violation of worldwide regulation.
At one level, tens of hundreds of Palestinians fleeing Israeli bombardment had been sheltering on the hospital, however most left in current days because the preventing drew nearer. The destiny of untimely infants on the hospital has drawn specific concern.
The Health Ministry stated 40 sufferers, together with three infants, have died since Shifa’s emergency generator ran out of gasoline Saturday.
There was no fast phrase on the situation of one other 36 infants the ministry stated earlier had been prone to dying as a result of there isn’t a energy for incubators.
Hours earlier than Israel’s raid, the United States stated its personal intelligence indicated militants have used Shifa and different hospitals — and tunnels beneath them — to help army operations and maintain hostages.
Under worldwide humanitarian regulation, hospitals can lose their protected standing if combatants use them for army functions. But civilians should be given ample time to flee, and any assault should be proportional to the army goal — placing the burden on Israel to indicate it was a large enough army goal to justify the siege towards it.
About two thirds of the territory’s 2.3 million individuals have fled their properties — and most at the moment are squeezed into the southern a part of the slender coastal strip.
Conditions there have been deteriorating, as bombardment continues to stage buildings. Residents say bread is scarce and grocery store cabinets are naked. Families cook dinner on wooden fires for lack of gasoline. Central electrical energy and working water have been out for weeks throughout Gaza.
After refusing to permit gasoline into Gaza for the reason that battle’s begin, saying it will be diverted to Hamas, Israeli protection officers early Wednesday let in some 24,000 liters (6,340 gallons).
The gasoline will solely be used for the U.N. company for Palestinian refugees, often known as UNRWA, to proceed bringing restricted provides of meals and drugs from Egypt for the greater than 600,000 individuals sheltering in U.N.-run colleges and different services within the south.
The gasoline can’t be used for hospitals or to desalinate water, stated Thomas White, UNRWA’s director in Gaza. The quantity is equal of “only 9% of what we need daily to sustain lifesaving activities,” he stated.
The Palestinian telecom firm Paltel, in the meantime, stated it was counting on batteries to maintain Gaza’ cellular and web community working, and that it anticipated companies to halt later Wednesday. Gaza has skilled three earlier mass communication outages for the reason that floor invasion.
Israeli troops have prolonged their management throughout northern Gaza. The army says Israeli forces took management of the Shati refugee camp, a densely constructed district, and are shifting about freely within the metropolis as an entire.
The army says its forces have discovered weapons and Hamas fighters in authorities buildings, colleges and residential buildings. Israel says it has killed a number of thousand fighters whereas 46 of its personal troopers have been killed in Gaza.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated Wednesday the bottom operation will finally “include both the north and south. We will strike Hamas wherever it is.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed the plans, saying Israel’s objective is “a complete victory over Hamas in the south and the return of our hostages.”
Israel instructed residents of northern Gaza to evacuate south, saying it wished to get civilians out of the trail of its floor assault, and a whole bunch of hundreds fled. If Israeli troops transfer south, it’s not clear the place Gaza’s inhabitants can flee, with Egypt refusing a mass switch onto its soil.
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Magdy and Jeffery reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Wafaa Shurafa in Dair al-Balah, Gaza, and Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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Full AP protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”