Israeli forces were involved in clashes with members of Hamas outside Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, while Israeli soldiers carried out “a selective operation” inside the building.
According to an Israeli military spokesman, “Israeli forces, before entering the hospital building, found explosives and terrorist cells and clashes took place in which terrorists were killed,” the same spokesman said, referring to members of Hamas.
“Troops are currently conducting a selective operation against Hamas in the area surrounding Al Shifa Hospital. The activity in this area is based on information showing that Hamas is operating from this area,” he added.
This Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority condemned the Israeli army’s attack on Al Shifa Hospital and called for “urgent international intervention” to protect patients, medical staff and displaced persons in the facilities.
The Foreign Ministry of the Hamas-controlled executive branch in Gaza has “strongly” condemned Israel’s military operation against Al Shifa and other medical centers, which it considers “a blatant violation of international rights, international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions’.
According to the Palestinian Authority statement, the latest events are “an extension of violations of occupation crimes against the Palestinian people,” adding that Israel is “denying citizens the most basic rights, such as access to medical treatment.”
The Palestinian Authority accuses the government of Israel of “responsibility for the security situation of the thousands of sick, injured and displaced people,” in addition to “the children and premature babies” in the hospital.
Meanwhile, the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health informed the United Nations that 40 patients died at Al Shifa Hospital on Tuesday.
“Forty patients died at Shifa Hospital on November 14,” he stated.
The hospital has prepared “a mass grave within the complex to bury 180 bodies of patients that could not be removed due to heavy fighting,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance said today in its daily report on the impact of the war on civilians.
The information provided to the UN does not indicate the direct cause of death of the patients.
The Ministry of Health did not specify the cause of death at the hospital where “approximately nine thousand people” are currently hospitalized.
This medical center, the most important in the Gaza Strip, has been without electricity, drinking water and food for several days and is home to approximately 9,000 people, including displaced persons, medical staff and patients, including more than 30 premature babies.
Israel says it has brought incubators, baby food and medical supplies to the hospital, as well as medical equipment and Arabic-speaking soldiers to facilitate the distribution of supplies.
According to information received by the UN, all hospitals in Gaza City (North) and northern Gaza, where the densest part of the health infrastructure in this enclave was located, are not functioning, with the exception of Al-Ahli Hospital.
Red Cross and UN concerned about Israeli operation in Gaza hospital
The Red Cross and the United Nations expressed extreme concern on Wednesday over the Israeli army’s military operation in Al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza.
“I am shocked by reports of military attacks on Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza,” UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
“The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must take priority over all other concerns,” Griffiths stressed in response to the Israeli military attack on Al-Shifa Hospital.
“Hospitals are not battlefields,” the UN official emphasized.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as well as the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), said they were “extremely concerned” about the impact of the fighting on medical staff, patients and civilians sheltered in the hospital.
The ICRC recalled that “patients, medical staff and citizens must be protected at all times,” and stressed that it is in contact “with the relevant authorities.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated on the same social network that “information about a military raid on A-Shifa hospital is very worrying.”
Ghebreyesus stressed that WHO had again lost contact with the hospital’s health team.
“We are extremely concerned for their safety and that of their patients,” the WHO official added.
Source: DN
