Israel’s military said its troops found an operational command centre and assets belonging to Hamas militants in Gaza’s biggest hospital on Wednesday, during a campaign that has stoked global alarm over the fate of civilians inside.
Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City has become the main target of the ground operation by Israeli forces, who said the “beating heart” of the Hamas fighters’ operations was headquartered in tunnels beneath it. Hamas denied the accusation and on Wednesday dismissed the Israeli statements as “lies and cheap propaganda.”
Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the troops were still searching, having entered the hospital earlier on Wednesday after days of clashes around it.
The military simultaneously released a video it said showed some of the materials it recovered from an undisclosed building in the hospital compound, including automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets.
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In one hospital department, “the soldiers located an operational command centre and technological assets belonging to Hamas, indicating that the terrorist organization uses the hospital for terrorist purposes,” an Israeli military statement said.
Israel has consistently maintained that the hospital sits above a Hamas headquarters, an assertion the United States said on Tuesday was supported by its own intelligence.
Israel said its troops had entered the hospital compound on Wednesday after killing militants in a clash outside. Once inside, they said there had been no fighting and no friction with civilians, patients or staff.
Witnesses who spoke to Reuters from inside the compound described a seemingly calm but tense situation, as Israeli troops moved between buildings conducting searches. Sporadic shooting was heard but there were no immediate reports of anyone hurt inside the grounds.
Featured VideoA doctor inside the Gaza City hospital said it was a ‘totally scary’ situation as Israeli ground forces entered the health-care complex.
The Israeli military released photos of a soldier standing beside cardboard boxes marked “medical supplies” and “baby food,” at a location Reuters verified was inside Al-Shifa. Other photos showed Israeli troops in tactical formation walking past makeshift tents and mattresses.
World attention has been focused on the fate of hundreds of patients trapped inside without electricity to operate basic medical equipment, along with thousands of displaced civilians who had sought shelter there. Gaza officials say many patients, including three newborn babies, have died in recent days as a result of Israel’s encirclement of the facility.
Humanitarian pauses urged
The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday called for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas militants for a “sufficient number of days” to allow humanitarian aid access. It also called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas. The 15-member council overcame an impasse in four attempts to take action last month.
Israel has so far rejected calls for a ceasefire, which it says would benefit Hamas, a position backed by Washington. But a pause in fighting has been discussed in negotiations mediated by Qatar to release some of the hostages held by Hamas.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters the Israeli military incursion into Al-Shifa was “totally unacceptable.”
“Hospitals are not battlegrounds,” he said in Geneva.
“What is happening in Gaza is a very obvious, very clear war crime that Israel is committing against those who have been treated in the hospitals,” said Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
‘I cannot leave the patient to die’
Dr. Mohammad Obeid, a surgeon with Doctors Without Borders who is working inside Al-Shifa Hospital, described the harrowing conditions in a phone call with CBC News that frequently cut out because of poor communication lines.
Obeid said bombing had intensified around the hospital complex during the night, and then Israeli tanks arrived at the complex.
“We worry if we look from the window, they [will] shoot us,” said Obeid.
He was told to stay in a room in a surgical wing by a manager, after it was learned Israeli military were in the building.
Doctors have been pleading for an evacuation plan for the hundreds of patients, including dozens of premature babies, for days, Obeid said.
“I’m a doctor … I cannot leave the patient to die,” he said.
The view from inside Al-Shifa
Dr. Ahmed El Mohallalati, a surgeon, told Reuters by phone on Wednesday morning that staff had hid as the fighting unfolded outside the hospital overnight.
“One of the big tanks entered within the hospital from the eastern main gate, and they were just parked in the front of the hospital emergency department,” said Mohallalati. As he spoke, the sound of what he described as “continuous shooting from the tanks” could be heard in the background.
Featured VideoPini Gorelick, who has two sons in the Israeli army, says he’s worried for his sons and is ‘so disappointed’ to see support for Hamas among some in Gaza.
The Israelis had told the hospital administration in advance that they planned to enter, he said. By mid-morning, he and other staff had yet to receive instructions from the troops, although the soldiers were “metres away” from them.
After five days during which he said the hospital had come under repeated Israeli attack, it was a relief at least to have reached an “end point,” with troops now inside the grounds instead of outside shooting in, Mohallalati said.
Trudeau comments prompt response from Netanyahu
Israel launched its campaign to annihilate Hamas, the Islamist militant group which controls Gaza, after fighters crossed into Israel on Oct. 7, rampaging through towns, killing civilians and dragging hostages back into Gaza. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and some 240 captives taken.
Since then, Israel has put Gaza’s entire population of 2.3 million under siege, pounding the crowded strip with airstrikes. Gaza health officials, considered reliable by the United Nations, say more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, around 40 per cent of them children.
Front Burner28:36The ceasefire debate
Featured VideoDemonstrators around the world are calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, as the destruction and death toll in Gaza continues to climb. Meanwhile, some of Israel’s allies, including the United States and Canada, want ‘humanitarian pauses’ in the fighting. Jonathan Guyer, senior foreign policy writer at Vox, explains the difference, and why the calls for a ceasefire are being rejected. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
Israel has ordered the entire northern half of Gaza evacuated, and around two-thirds of residents are now homeless.
While supporting Israel’s right to defend itself and acknowledging that Hamas shields itself within the civilian population in Gaza, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday pleaded for “this killing of women, of children, of babies” to end. The comments prompted a rebuke from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Israel is trying to minimize civilian casualties.
