The Israeli Army (IDF) denied this Saturday that it had given the doctors, patients and displaced persons housed in the Palestinian al-Shifa hospital, located in the north and largest of Gaza, a period of one hour to leave, according to the Ministry of Health had declared.of Gaza.
According to the IDF, the army “accorded to the request of the director of al-Shifa hospital to allow other Gazans who were in the hospital and wanted to leave to do so safely.”
“At no time did the Army order the removal of patients or medical equipment and, in fact, proposed that any request for medical removal be facilitated by the Army,” the military statement said.
Earlier, the Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by the political wing of Hamas, reported: “The occupation army offers doctors, patients and displaced persons the possibility of leaving Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza within one hour “.
The head of the Orthopedics department, Adnan al-Bursh, quoted by the ministry, stated that the order had created a “serious state of panic and fear” in the hospital and stressed that doctors would not leave the hospital without patients.
Meanwhile, Gaza Health Director General Munir al-Bursh reported that Israeli troops removed the bodies from the hospital’s morgue, as well as from the cemetery excavated within the perimeter of the medical center.
According to the United Nations, there are currently 2,300 patients, caregivers and displaced people in these facilities, and international concern about their fate is growing.
Israel insists that Hamas, which has held power in Gaza since 2007, is using the hospital as a military base.
The Israeli military claims that al-Shifa hides a Hamas command center and is therefore a military target.
In recent days it has surrounded the site and carried out several limited raids on its facilities, in which it claims to have discovered weapons and a tunnel used by the Islamist group Hamas.
On October 7, the Islamist movement Hamas launched a surprise attack against southern Israel with the launch of thousands of rockets and the incursion of armed militiamen.
In response, Israel declared war on Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and is classified as terrorist by the EU and the United States, bombed several of the group’s infrastructure in Gaza and imposed a total siege on the territory, cutting off water. . supplies, fuel and electricity.
Israeli bombings from air, land and sea caused more than 12,000 deaths, mostly civilians, in the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas data.
Source: TSF
