Israel says Hamas weapons, command post found at Gaza hospital
Israel says its troops have found an operational command centre and assets belonging to Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza’s biggest hospital.
Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City has become the main target of the incursion into the territory by Israeli forces, who say the “beating heart” of the Hamas fighters’ operations is headquartered in tunnels beneath it, something Hamas denies.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the soldiers who entered the hospital earlier on Wednesday after encircling it for days had found weapons, combat gear and technological equipment there and were continuing their search.
The military also released a video they said showed some of the materials recovered from an undisclosed building in the hospital compound, including automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets.
Israel has consistently maintained the hospital sits above a Hamas headquarters, an assertion the United States said on Tuesday was supported by its own intelligence.
Hailing the entry of his forces into the hospital, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement: “There is no place in Gaza that we cannot reach. There are no hideouts. There is no shelter or refuge for the Hamas murderers.
“We will reach and eliminate Hamas and we will bring back our hostages. These are two sacred missions.”
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Israel said its troops had entered the hospital compound after killing militants in a clash outside. Once inside, they said there had been no fighting and no friction with civilians, patients or staff.
Witnesses who spoke to Reuters from inside the compound described a seemingly calm but tense situation, as Israeli troops moved between buildings conducting searches.
Sporadic shooting was heard but there were no reports of anyone hurt inside the grounds.
The Israeli military released photos of a soldier standing beside cardboard boxes marked “medical supplies” and “baby food” inside Al Shifa. Others showed Israeli troops in tactical formation walking past makeshift tents and mattresses.
International attention has focused on the fate of hundreds of patients trapped inside without electricity to operate basic medical equipment, and thousands of displaced civilians who had sought shelter there.
Gaza officials say many patients including three newborn babies died in recent days as a result of Israel’s encirclement of the hospital.
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“Before entering the hospital our forces were confronted by explosive devices and terrorist squads, fighting ensued in which terrorists were killed,” the Israeli military said.
“We can confirm incubators, baby food and medical supplies brought by IDF tanks from Israel have successfully reached the Shifa hospital. Our medical teams and Arabic speaking soldiers are on the ground to ensure these supplies reach those in need.”
Israel launched its campaign to wipe out Hamas after militants rampaged through southern Israel on October 7. Israel says 1200 people were killed and 240 captives taken.
Since, Israel has put Gaza’s entire population of 2.3 million under siege, battering the crowded strip with air strikes.
Gaza health officials say about 11,500 Palestinians are now confirmed killed, around 40 per cent of them children, and more are buried under the rubble.
Israel has ordered the entire northern half of Gaza evacuated and around two-thirds of residents are now homeless.
The United Nations Security Council was due to vote later on Wednesday on a draft resolution calling for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses in the fighting and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for sufficient days to enable aid access, diplomats said.
Israel has so far rejected calls for a ceasefire, which it says would benefit Hamas, a position backed by Washington.
But a pause in fighting has been discussed in negotiations mediated by Qatar to release some of the hostages held by Hamas.
World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters the Israeli incursion into Al Shifa Hospital was “totally unacceptable”.
“Hospitals are not battlegrounds,” he said in Geneva.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh from the Israeli-occupied West Bank “What is happening in Gaza is a very obvious, very clear war crime that Israel is committing against those who have been treated in the hospitals,” said .
-AAP
