Witnesses reported seeing airstrikes on the destroyed neighborhood of Al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, as part of an operation launched by the Israeli military on Monday.
According to a military statement, Israeli soldiers are “currently conducting a precision operation in the area of Shifa Hospital”.
“The basis of the operation is Intel information indicating that senior Hamas terrorists are using the hospital.”
According to AFP, witnesses in Gaza City reported seeing tanks surrounding the hospital.
The health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says tens of thousands of Palestinians uprooted by the conflict have taken refuge in the compound.
In addition, the operation that the Israeli army carried out in Al-Shifa in November caused international outrage.
The Palestinian group disputes repeated accusations by Israel that it uses hospitals and other medical facilities to conduct military operations.
“The attack on the Al-Shifa medical complex with tanks, drones and weapons and shooting at it is a war crime,” the office of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip said in response to the operation.
In Hamas-controlled territory, the Ministry of Health reported receiving calls from individuals near the hospital who claimed there had been many casualties. The intensity of gunfire and artillery shelling prevented anyone from taking them to hospital, the ministry said.
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Since the beginning of the conflict, the Israeli army has carried out numerous operations in and around medical facilities throughout the Gaza Strip.
Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas, launched an intense ground offensive and bombardment that killed at least 31,645 people, most of them women and children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
To prevent harm to patients, civilians, medical personnel and medical equipment, soldiers in Al-Shifa “were instructed on the importance of acting with caution,” the Israeli military said.
Arabic speakers were brought in to “facilitate dialogue with patients who remained in the hospital,” according to the statement. “Patients and medical staff are not required to evacuate,” it said.
The Israeli military claimed to have discovered weapons and other military hardware hidden at the site following its operation on Al-Shifa on 15 November; Hamas denied these claims.
In addition, she showed in the video that she was being held hostage in a 55-meter tunnel he discovered in the basement – a claim that Hamas has also denied.
The UN says 155 medical facilities in the Gaza Strip have been damaged since the conflict began.
According to the Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, there were numerous deaths throughout the Gaza Strip overnight. Twelve members of the same family were killed at the weekend when their house in central Gaza’s Dair al-Balah caught fire.
Leen Thabit, a Palestinian girl, sobbed as she told AFP her cousin was killed in the attack as she dug up a white dress from the rubble of their destroyed home.
“She died. All she had left was her clothes,” Thabit noted.
The only urban area in Gaza where Israeli ground forces have not yet arrived is Rafah.
Visitors to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz informed reporters that “any peaceful development in the region would be very difficult” if such an offensive resulted in “a large number of casualties”.
However, Israel maintains that it cannot defeat Hamas by military means unless it conducts operations throughout the region.
Netanyahu promised on Sunday that residents teeming in the southern part of the strip would be allowed to evacuate before military forces move in to hunt down Hamas militants. Netanyahu’s office announced on Friday that the army’s plan for the operation in Rafah, including the “evacuation of the population”, had been approved.
