Israeli forces attacked Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital for a second day, entering the medical complex from the southern side.
“The situation at al-Shifa hospital is indeed very dire,” Tel Aviv Tribune’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said from Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Thursday morning.
The facility is home to thousands of patients, medical staff and displaced Palestinians who, according to witnesses, are not allowed to leave.
“Israeli bulldozers and tanks reportedly advanced inside the hospital complex, damaging the facility’s wall. Doctors and other medical professionals were also reportedly questioned,” Abu Azzoum said.
Israeli tanks and troops entered the al-Shifa compound for the first time on Wednesday morning in what they called a “targeted” operation, after surrounding and bombarding the facility for days.
Israel claims that al-Shifa is used as a command center for Hamas, the group that rules Gaza, but has not produced evidence to support these claims.
Hamas rejects these accusations and has called on the United Nations to send investigators to verify the truth.
“It’s a civilian hospital. There are no Hamas members in al-Shifa hospital,” Mohammed Zaqout, director general of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, told Tel Aviv Tribune. “There is no military activity in al-Shifa. Everything happened around the hospital, but inside the hospital, all the people are civilians.
“Blindfolded and Interrogated”
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Khan Younis, said that more than 24 hours after Israeli troops first raided the compound, they had “produced no evidence” linking the hospital to Hamas.
“Unfortunately, this failure to confirm has only led to massive destruction at the hospital and further attacks on its building and a redeployment of troops to the hospital gates from all sides,” he added. .
The specialist surgery building was damaged from the inside, Israeli soldiers blew up a warehouse of medicines and medical equipment inside the hospital, and witnesses reported “that around 200 people had their eyes bandaged, interrogated and taken to unknown areas,” Mahmoud reported.
“All of this is happening under heavy cover of airstrikes and tank fire around al-Shifa hospital and central Gaza. »
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, described the Israeli invasion of al-Shifa as “the mother of all scandals” and questioned why the Israeli military said it had to occupy the hospitals “for days” to find evidence.
“In doing so, they endangered the lives of patients (and) hospital staff,” Barghouti told Tel Aviv Tribune from Ramallah.
Humanitarian break
The United States has continued to promote the Israeli narrative that Al-Shifa is used as a “military headquarters” by Hamas, but has denied giving Israel the green light for a raid. President Joe Biden also called on Israel to be “incredibly careful” in its operations in al-Shifa.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution late Wednesday calling for “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza, but Israel rejected it.
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, said the resolution would make “no sense”, calling it “disconnected from reality”.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike on Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s house in Gaza because it “often served as a meeting point for senior Hamas leaders to direct terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians” and Israeli soldiers.
Deaths were reported across the Gaza Strip overnight as Israeli forces struck other locations in northern and central Gaza, including two residential buildings in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The UN said there remained only one hospital in northern Gaza with the capacity to accept patients.
Israeli attacks on Gaza continue for the 41st consecutive day, after Hamas fighters entered Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people. Since then, Israel has killed more than 11,300 Palestinians in Gaza.