Today (Thursday), the Israeli army returned to the Al-Shifa medical complex in Gaza city, a day after an assault and inspection of the Strip’s largest hospital, which sparked international concern and criticism over the fate of the patients and thousands of people. civilians besieged, according to Agence France-Presse.
Israel and its ally, the United States, accuse the Hamas movement of hiding weapons and military facilities in the Shifa medical complex, which the Palestinian movement denies.
The commander of Israeli military operations in Gaza, General Yaron Finkelman, said: “We will carry out a targeted operation in Al-Shifa hospital this evening.” “We continue to make progress,” he added.
After days of military operations and battles in the surrounding area, the army stormed the Al-Shifa complex yesterday (Wednesday), where United Nations estimates indicate the presence of at least 2,300 people, including patients, medical staff and displaced people who took refuge inside. It.
Dozens of Israeli soldiers, some wearing masks, entered the hospital at dawn on Wednesday, according to an internal journalist working with Agence France-Presse.
The contributing journalist saw the Israeli army reposition itself around the structure late Wednesday afternoon.
The Israeli army announced that it had found “ammunition, weapons and military equipment” belonging to Hamas in Al-Shifa hospital.
He posted images of weapons, grenades and other equipment he said he found in the medical complex. Agence France-Presse was unable to independently verify these images.
On the other hand, the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health confirmed that the army “did not find any equipment or weapons” in Al-Shifa hospital, explaining that it “does not allow” weapons in affiliated hospitals.
In addition to the Israeli accusations, Washington confirmed that Hamas uses the lower parts of the complex for military purposes.
US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that the Palestinian movement, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, had committed a war crime by establishing “its military headquarters and (its) facility under a hospital”.
Biden confirmed that he called on Israel to be “extremely careful” in its movements at Al-Shifa hospital. And he adds: “I would like to be precise. “We discussed the need for them to be very careful.”
Washington denies having given the “green light”
A spokesperson for the US National Security Council confirmed that Washington “has not given the green light to operations around Al-Shifa hospital”.
John Kirby said: “We have always been very clear with our Israeli partners about the importance of minimizing civilian casualties.”
The day before he had confirmed that Hamas was using Gaza hospitals for military purposes, while the movement considered it a “green light” for Israel “for the occupation to commit even more brutal massacres.”
The assault on Al-Shifa Hospital sparked international condemnation and urgent calls for the protection of civilians.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned “in the strongest terms” the bombing of civilian infrastructure.
For its part, Qatar called for an “international investigation” into Israeli raids on hospitals and described the operation in Al-Shifa as a “war crime.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described Israel as a “terrorist state”.
The assault on the Shifa complex takes place at the height of the war that Israel and Hamas have been waging since October 7, following an unprecedented attack launched by the movement on Israeli territory.
The attack killed around 1,200 people in Israel, most of whom were civilians, and most of them died on the first day of the attack, according to Israeli authorities. According to the same source, around 240 people, including foreigners, were kidnapped by Israel and transferred to the Gaza Strip.
In response, Israel vowed to “eliminate” Hamas, which the United States and the European Union classify as “terrorist.” Since then, Israel has relentlessly bombed the Gaza Strip and imposed a “total siege” on it, and ground operations began on October 27. The attack killed more than 11,500 people, according to a tally by Hamas’ Ministry of Health.
The war has sparked a growing humanitarian crisis in the Strip after Israel tightened its siege, cutting off supplies of water, electricity, fuel and food. Since fighting broke out, limited food shipments have entered through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt. The entry of the first truck carrying fuel was also recorded on Wednesday.
Although a first shipment of just over 23,000 liters was delivered yesterday, the United Nations warned that aid operations in Gaza were “on the brink of collapse”.
Yesterday the UN Security Council broke its silence for the first time since the outbreak of the war, calling for “urgent, large-scale ceasefires and humanitarian corridors for a sufficient number of days” to provide humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.
The resolution drafted by Malta, adopted with 12 votes in favor and three abstentions (United States, United Kingdom and Russia), “calls for extensive and urgent humanitarian truces and corridors for a sufficient number of days” to provide humanitarian aid to civilians. in Gaza.
Israel and the United States, which has veto power in the Security Council, have previously rejected growing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza on the grounds that it would benefit Hamas. In exchange, Israel announced that it would open temporary windows daily to allow civilians to migrate from the north of the Strip, where military operations are concentrated, to the south.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 1.65 million residents of the Gaza Strip have been displaced by the war, out of a total population of 2.4 million.
The Security Council resolution does not mention condemnation of last month’s Hamas attack.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson called for an “unequivocal” condemnation of “Hamas”, stressing that there is no room for a “long-term humanitarian truce” until the hostages are released.
“Substantial cooperation” regarding hostages
Despite international pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that “there is no place in Gaza that we will not reach, there is no hiding place or refuge.”
While inspecting a military base in southern Israel he added: “We will reach Hamas, eliminate it and return the hostages,” stressing that these are “two important missions” in the ongoing war.
Yesterday, Biden expressed “moderate optimism” that Israel and Hamas could reach an agreement on a number of issues.
At a press conference after meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in response to a question about how close he was to reaching an agreement on the release of the hostages, he said: “I don’t want to get ahead of things because I don’t want to know what happened in the last four hours, but we had great collaboration from Qatar.”
Internal pressure on the Israeli government increases, especially regarding the hostage issue. Their relatives began a five-day march in Tel Aviv on Tuesday to demand a deal on their release.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid called on Netanyahu to resign “immediately”.