Israeli Forces Raid Gaza's Largest Hospital Where Thousands Sheltering
The raid sparked fear and panic among the civilians and health workers inside the hospital, as Israeli soldiers searched the basement, the surgical and emergency buildings, and fired at some people trying to leave the hospital corridor.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that the hospital is a civilian facility that has nothing to hide.
“There are only doctors, patients and displaced people,” Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said.
“We have nothing to be afraid of or hide,” Al Jazeera Arabic quoted him as saying early on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Dr Munir al-Bursh, the general director of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, said that Israeli forces have searched the basement of al-Shifa Hospital early on Wednesday.
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“Not a single bullet was fired from inside the hospital during the occupation forces’ storming of the complex,” al-Bursh said.
The ministry also said that the hospital is under constant fire from Israeli snipers and drones, and that between 5,000 and 7,000 people are trapped inside the hospital grounds.
Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls Gaza, denied that it is using the hospital as a command centre, as Israel and the United States have claimed.
A Hamas official called the Israeli raid a "juvenile politics and an open ploy" and a sign of Israel's defeat. He stressed that the hospital is not a military target, but a place for medics, patients and displaced people.
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“The push by Netanyahu and his army to paint this as an accomplishment or victory shows their shortcomings and the depth of defeat they have suffered,” al-Risheq said in a video message.
The Israeli raid on al-Shifa is part of the ongoing Israeli relentless military strikes on Gaza, which has killed more than 11,300 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since October 7.
Source: Agencies
