Israel storms Gaza Al-Shifa hospital
Israeli soldiers have entered the largest hospital in Gaza, just hours after a US intelligence chief said he believed Hamas use the building to hide a command centre
Israel's troops have stormed Gaza’s largest hospital in what the military described as "targeted operation" against Hamas.
The army surrounded the facility early on Wednesday as part of its ground offensive against the group, who they claimed had been hiding military operations in the hospital. Their claims have been backed by intelligence chiefs in the US.
The development comes as Israeli soldiers moved to take broader control of northern Gaza, including capturing the territory’s law buildings and police headquarters. Al-Shifa Hospital has been at the centre of the latest stage of the conflict, with hundreds of patients, staff and displaced people trapped inside.
The hospital had stopped operations over the weekend as supplies ran low and a lack of electricity left it with no way to run incubators and other lifesaving equipment. Morgue staff dug a mass grave outside the hospital yesterday for 120 bodies after electricity failed.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it raided specific areas of the Al-Shifa complex, while trying to avoid harming civilians. Their statement gave no further details. Eyewitnesses reported later in the morning that tanks had been spotted outside the hospital, with around 100 commandoes entering the complex with grenades.
Israel has long alleged that the militants conceal military assets in the facility and other hospitals. In the US, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby yesterday supported the claim, and said both Hamas and fundamentalist group Islamic Jihad "operate a command and control node from Al-Shifa in Gaza City". He added: "They have stored weapons there and they're prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility."
The claim is denied by Hamas and medical staff at the hospital, and a statement by the militant group described the raid as a "war crime". The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Tuesday it had evacuated patients, doctors and displaced families from Al-Quds, another hospital in Gaza City. Israeli defence officials also said they will allow fuel shipments into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian operation, an announcement which came hours after the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees said its fuel reserves in Gaza ran dry on Tuesday.
Fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in northern Gaza has also caused 200,000 people to flee south in the past 10 days, the UN humanitarian agency said. More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, according to the health ministry in Gaza, who do not count civilian and militant deaths separately. Around 240 Israeli hostages were taken by Hamas in the October 7 attacks, with only four of them known to have been released.
Desperate Gaza doctors wrap newborns in tin foil as power cuts out amid Israeli bombardment
Doctors at Gaza’s largest hospital say they are wrapping premature babies in foil in a desperate bid to keep them alive.
Staff at the al-Shifa hospital are struggling to save newborns’ lives after oxygen and power ran out. They had to move the babies from the neonatal unit’s incubators to a different part of the hospital.
Director Dr Muhammad Abu Salmiya said: “I was with them a while ago. They are now exposed, because we have taken them out of the incubators. We wrap them in foil and put hot water next to them so that we can warm them.”
Dr Mohamed Tabasha, head of the paediatric department, said: “Yesterday I had 39 babies and today they have become 36. I cannot say how long they can last.
“I can lose another two babies today, or in an hour. I never expected in my life that I would put 39 babies side by side on a bed, each with a different disease, and in this acute shortage of medical staff, of milk.”
The Gaza health ministry said six premature babies and nine patients have died since electrical shortages began last week. The World Health Organisation said al-Shifa was no longer functioning as a hospital. There is constant gunfire and bombing in the area, it added.
The announcements came as Israel confirmed 44 soldiers had been killed since the start of the war against Hamas. Some of their funerals were held yesterday.
Master Sergeant (Reserves) Sergey Shmerkin, 32, was buried in Kiryat Shmona. A ceremony was held for Master Sergeant (Reserves) Matan Meir, 38, in Odem. Meir, a crew member for Netflix series Fauda, was one of four soldiers of the 697th Battalion killed by a booby-trapped tunnel shaft by a mosque in Beit Hanoun. Show creator and actor Lior Raz said: “Matan, a man with a heart of gold full of kindness and giving. I loved you.”
Issuing an update on its military operation in Gaza, the IDF said it had conducted 4,300 missile strikes. It claimed to have struck around 300 tunnel shafts and 3,000 sites of what it called terrorist infrastructure. The EU yesterday called for meaningful pauses in fighting so fuel could be delivered to hospitals.
Janez Lenarcic, European Commissioner for Crisis Management, said in Brussels: “More than half of hospitals in the Gaza Strip have stopped working… primarily because of lack of fuel. These pauses have to be meaningful.” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the situation was dire and perilous.
A Turkish ship carrying materials for field hospitals has arrived in an Egyptian port near the Rafah border crossing. It brought generators, ambulances and other supplies to the port of Al Arish, with the aim of establishing eight field hospitals.
It is the first such aid vessel to arrive in Egypt since war broke out on October 7, when Hamas launched attacks on Israel that killed 1,200. More than 230 people were taken hostage.
The Archbishop of Canterbury repeated his call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. He also told the Church of England General Synod of his visit to Jerusalem three weeks ago. The Most Reverend Justin Welby added: “Thousands more innocent men, women and children in Gaza have been killed since then –while thousands in Israel still mourn those killed on October 7, and hundreds of families still plead for the release of their loved ones. So I repeat that call again with renewed urgency and even more force. This bloodshed must cease. Hostages must be released, and aid must reach those in Gaza in dire need.” Synod members stood for a two-minute silence for the people of both Israel and Palestine.
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