The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it launched a “precise operation” at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza on Monday morning.
“The operation is based on intelligence information indicating the use of the hospital by senior Hamas terrorists,” it added.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas, which is classified as a terror group by the US, the EU, Germany and others, of running its operations from — or under — hospitals and other civilian facilities.
Witnesses in Gaza City told the AFP news agency that the al-Rimal neighborhood, where the Shifa Hospital is located, had been hit by airstrikes and that tanks had surrounded the hospital complex itself.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry accused Israel of using “fabricated narratives” to “justify the storming” of the hospital, which it called a violation of international humanitarian law.
“We hold the Israeli occupation responsible for the lives of medical staff, patients and displaced persons inside al-Shifa Medical Complex,” the ministry said in a Facebook post.
“The Israeli military attack aims to continue destroying the health system in northern Gaza,” it added.
In its statement on Monday, the IDF said its troops had been “instructed on the importance of operating cautiously, as well as on the measures to be taken to avoid harming the patients, civilians, medical staff, and medical equipment,” before the operation started.
The Israeli army previously entered the hospital in a military operation at the end of last year, uncovering what it said were tunnels used by Hamas.
Source: dw.com
