The Israeli military has announced that it has seized control of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, citing it as part of an operation to “thwart terrorist activity.”
It said troops came under fire from hospital buildings and that 80 people had been detained and others killed, including “Hamas terrorists”. Witnesses described heavy exchanges of fire around the site, where thousands of displaced people are sheltering.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Israel was committing a war crime. The Israeli military said there was no obligation for medical staff or patients to leave, and that the hospital could continue its important functions. But several medical staff inside the hospital told the BBC that the electricity had been cut and that they had been instructed by the Israeli military not to move, prohibiting them from properly treating patients.
“We are trapped where we are inside the department,” said Dr Amer Jedbeh, a 31-year-old surgical resident.
“A shell hit our building on the first floor, injuring several people. One man died – we could not save him. We are working only with first aid, essentially, we cannot operate because there is no electricity or water.”
Dr Jedbeh said two patients on life support at the intensive care unit in the same building had died because the electricity supply was cut ahead of the raid. “All the machinery is off,” he added.
“Colleagues from the main building say there are many injured there who need surgery but we cannot get to them and they cannot bring the patients to us.”
Israeli forces have been fiercely criticised for their previous raids on Gaza’s health facilities – including al-Shifa – during the five-month war with Hamas.
The conflict began after Hamas gunmen killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on 7 October and took 253 other people hostage.
More than 31,700 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 81 people in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Eyewitnesses to the latest raid on al-Shifa described a state of panic inside the hospital – Gaza’s biggest medical facility – as Israeli troops launched the rapid and unexpected raid in the early hours of Monday morning.
“Tanks are surrounding us. We are hiding inside the tent. We hear tank fire in the vicinity of the compound,” Mahmoud al-Saudi said in a recorded call with his brother, which was posted on a WhatsApp group. Another man inside the hospital, Mohammed al-Sayyid, said in a voice message sent to journalists: “The soldiers here inside the complex, there are dead and wounded, and the soldiers arrested some young men.”
The deputy director of the emergency department at al-Shifa told the BBC that there were about 20 doctors and 60 nurses inside the hospital, as well as hundreds of patients.
Dr Amjad Eliwah – who is just outside the hospital grounds but is in contact with his staff inside – described the situation as “very critical”. He also said the Israeli troops raided two schools next to the hospital that were being used as shelters by displaced people.
They arrested all the men inside and told the women to leave through a designated exit and head south towards the town of Deir al-Balah, he added.
Israel Defense Forces, IDF, chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari announced overnight that troops were conducting a “high-precision operation in limited areas of al-Shifa hospital following concrete intelligence that demanded immediate action”.
“We know that senior Hamas terrorists have regrouped inside al-Shifa hospital and are using it to command attacks against Israel,” he said.
He added: “We call upon all Hamas terrorists hiding in hospitals to surrender immediately. Medical facilities should never be exploited for terror. Hamas must be held accountable.”
Hamas and health officials have repeatedly denied the accusation that Hamas fighters have operated inside or underneath al-Shifa and other hospitals.
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Later on Monday, the IDF said in a statement that troops had “identified terrorist fire toward them from a number of hospital buildings”, adding: “The forces engaged the terrorists and identified several hits.”
It also released grainy night-time video footage from drones and an armoured vehicle that it said showed troops coming under fire from within the compound and the detonation of an explosive device.
The IDF’s Arabic spokesman said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that all people present in the vicinity should leave immediately and head south the “humanitarian area” in al-Mawasi, near the southern city of Rafah.
The IDF also said an Israeli soldier, Staff Sgt Matan Vingradov, had been killed in northern Gaza on Monday, but did not say whether it happened in the raid.
The Hamas-run health ministry said in a statement that Israeli forces had “invaded” al-Shifa Hospital for the fourth time since start of the war and was using “fabricated narratives” to justify its actions.
It accused the troops of “directly shooting the specialised surgeries building with bullets and targeting it with missiles”, and said a number of people had been killed and wounded.
“The presence of Israeli vehicles in the courtyards of the complex in a real tragedy and an attack on health institutions against all international laws and norms,” it added.
Hamas also denounced what it called a “new crime” by Israeli forces.
The CEO of the British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, MAP, that she was “gravely concerned about the safety of patients and medics”.
“This is part of a pattern of systematically dismantling the health system in Gaza,” Melanie Ward told the BBC. “There’s only now a quarter of primary healthcare facilities functioning in Gaza. There’s no longer a single fully functioning hospital.”
“What we’ve seen at previous Israeli military raids on hospitals in Gaza is that patients have died and have been injured, and medics have been beaten, have been detained,” she added.
Hospitals have protected status during times of war under international humanitarian law – but they can lose that protection in limited circumstances if they are being used to commit an “act harmful to the enemy”.
The IDF said it found tunnels used by Hamas underneath al-Shifa when it first raided the hospital in November.
Israeli troops also carried out a major operation at Nasser hospital – Gaza’s second biggest – in the southern city of Khan Younis in February.
Doctors have reported being mistreated during a recent raid on Nasser hospital in Gaza. The UK has asked Israel to explain what happened.
The Israeli military says they found weapons and medication meant for hostages at the hospital. Some hostages who were released also said they were held there.
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