Israeli Troops Enter Gaza Hospital

Gaza Strip, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Nov, 2023) Israeli forces stormed Gaza's largest hospital Wednesday, targeting what they believe is a Hamas command centre housed among thousands of ailing and sheltering civilians.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said military operations were taking place at Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital -- the focal point of days of deadly fighting and nearby aerial bombardments.

Youssef Abu Rish, an official from the Hamas-run health ministry who is inside the hospital, told AFP he could see tanks inside the complex and "dozens of soldiers and commandos inside the emergency and reception buildings".

The Israeli army described it as "a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area" of the facility.

The United Nations has said it estimates that at least 2,300 people -- patients, staff and displaced civilians -- are inside and may be unable to escape because of fierce fighting.

Witnesses have described conditions inside the hospital as horrific, with medical procedures taking place without anaesthetic, families with scant food or water living in corridors, and the stench of decomposing corpses filling the air.

"There are bodies littered in the hospital complex and there is no longer electricity at the morgues," hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya said prior to the operation.

Anticipating a fierce backlash against the hospital raid, the Israeli military said it had provided evacuation routes for civilians and given authorities in Hamas-run Gaza 12 hours' notice that any military operation inside must cease.

"Unfortunately, it did not," the Israeli military said, again calling on "all Hamas terrorists present in the hospital to surrender".

The ministry's Abu Rish called on "the international community and the United Nations to intervene immediately and urgently to stop the Israeli storming operation".

He said that among the thousands inside the hospital were "650 ailing people and thousands of injured people".

A journalist inside the hospital who is collaborating with AFP said Israeli soldiers were interrogating people on Wednesday morning, among them patients and doctors.

The White House reiterated its concerns for the safety of civilians shortly after the raid began.

"We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don't want to see a firefight in a hospital," a National Security Council spokesperson said.

The official added that there should not be a situation in which "innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire".