1 of 4 | A Palestinian man holds an injured child following an Israeli strike at Al Najar Hospital in Rafah, the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, October 20, 2023. Photo by Ismail Muhammad/UPI | License Photo
Israel is urging Hamas to surrender amid what it said is a “targeted” military strike inside Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, where thousands of Palestinians are thought to be sheltering and Israel has accused Hamas of setting up a command post.
Conditions inside the hospital have deteriorated. The hospital has run out of fuel and is not considered operational. Doctors report “catastrophic” conditions for patients, staff, and civilians inside, including dozens of babies. Advertisement
A doctor inside Al-Shifa told CNN they were only given 30 minutes’ warning before the Israeli military launched its operation.
“We were asked to stay clear of the windows and the balconies,” Dr. Khaled Abu Samra said. “We can hear the armored vehicles, they are very close to the entrance of the complex.”
There are several thousand people seeking shelter from the Israeli military offensive and according to the latest reports, hundreds of patients and staff remain inside Al-Shifa.
The Israeli Defense Forces claimed it had initiated “a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Al-Shifa Hospital,” it said in a statement. Advertisement
The statement did not specify, nor have there been independent reports, of how many soldiers entered the hospital, but witnesses told CNN there were Israeli tanks visible in the hospital complex.
“We can see them pointing the guns of the tanks toward the hospital. We are not sure whether soldiers are inside the hospital [buildings], but they are inside the complex with the tanks,” Khader Al Za’anoun, a reporter for the Palestinian news agency, Wafa, told CNN.
He reported that gunfire had been exchanged across the complex’s yard, and windows in one of the buildings were blown out.
Doctors and journalists at the hospital have described desperate efforts to keep premature babies alive, and said some limited medical procedures are taking place by candlelight.
The lives of dozens of newborn babies, some premature, hung in the balance when the hospital lost power over the weekend. There were efforts to get incubators into the Al-Shifa, but with the electricity out and no fuel, it was not clear how medical staff would operate them.
President Biden said over the weekend that “hospitals must be protected,” but those pleas seem to have fallen on deaf ears as Israel launched its directed attack just a few days after Biden’s statement. Israel has accused Hamas of establishing an operational command center in the hospital and using patients as human shields. Israel said such a tactic “jeopardizes the hospital’s protected status under international law.” Hamas has repeatedly rejected those claims as a “false narrative.” Advertisement
