Israel Defence Force stormed Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip, in the early hours of Wednesday. The Israeli occupational forces released a statement just before the “operation” that “Hamas uses the hospital for terrorism.”
“The IDF is conducting a ground operation in Gaza to defeat Hamas and rescue our hostages.” IDF posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Dozens of soldiers are in the facility’s emergency department while tanks are stationed in the yard of the medical complex.
The Israeli military operation came just hours after the statement from the White House by the US national security spokesperson John Kirby that “the U.S. has its own independent intelligence that shows Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are using al-Shifa hospital and other hospitals for holding hostages and for military activities.”
However, the US hasn’t revealed any evidence it has gathered despite the query by media persons during his briefing.
Hamas blamed US President Joe Biden and his administration for essentially giving the green light for Israel to launch the attack inside the hospital.
According to Aljazeera, Hamas reportedly said that “it holds Israel and US president Joe Biden responsible for the implication of the raiding of al-Shifa hospital by Israeli forces.”
In a statement published by Palastine News Agency Wafa, the Palastine health minister al-Kaila accused Israel of ‘crimes against humanity’.
She also said that “Palestine government holds Israeli forces responsible for the lives of the medical staff, patients, and displaced people in al-Shifa hospital.”
The al-Shifa hospital has already been facing an acute shortage of fuel, and other amenities required to run smoothly and is flooded with a huge number of people inside the hospital where at least 7500 people are sheltering including medical staff, patients, and displaced residents of northern Gaza.
The military move has left the inhabitants of the hospital in a scary situation.
In an interview given to Aljazeera Arabic, that has gone viral, Dr. Munir al-Barsh heard saying soon after the operation started. “If I survive I’ll live with dignity and we’ll keep in contact, but if I get killed we’ll meet in heaven.”
Forty patients died in Shifa hospital on 14 November, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza. The hospital reported preparations for a mass grave inside the compound to bury 180 bodies of patients, which cannot be evacuated due to the intense fighting.
