Israeli troops entered al-Shifa hospital early on Wednesday, conducting what it called a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the medical complex.
The decision to send troops into the hospital marks an escalation of Israel’s offensive in Gaza but and will fuel calls for a ceasefire that Israel has so far resisted.
Youssef Abu Rish, an official from the Hamas-run health ministry inside the hospital, said he could see tanks inside the complex and “dozens of soldiers and commandos inside the emergency and reception buildings”.
Dr Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Gaza health ministry, told Al Jazeera television that Israeli forces had entered the western side of the sprawling site. “There are big explosions and dust entered the areas where we are. We believe an explosion occurred inside the hospital,” Bursh said.
Fighting has raged around the Shifa hospital compound for many days, trapping around 1,200 patients and staff. The hospital, Gaza’s biggest, has become a strategic objective for Israel, which says there is an Hamas command centre in bunkers underneath.
The Israeli military said it had provided evacuation routes for civilians and given authorities in Hamas-run Gaza 12 hours’ notice that any military operation inside must cease. A spokesperson called on “all Hamas terrorists present in the hospital to surrender”.
A journalist inside the hospital who is collaborating with AFP news agency said Israeli soldiers were interrogating people on Wednesday morning, among them patients and doctors. It was unclear whether the Israeli forces intended to stay in the hospital to establish durable control over the site or planned to withdraw.
Gaza’s health ministry was quoted by Palestinian news agency Shebab as saying that “dozens of soldiers” had entered the al-Shifa emergency department building, and that tanks had entered the complex.
Hours later, Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra told Al Jazeera: “The occupation army is now in the basement, and searching the basement. They are inside the complex, shooting and carrying out bombings.”
A witness inside al-Shifa has told the BBC’s correspondent in Palestine, Rushdi Abu Alouf, that soldiers had entered the complex and “fired a smoke bomb that caused people to suffocate”. Khader Al-Zaanoun told Abu Alouf: “I saw the soldiers entering the specialised surgical department.”
The Guardian has not been able to verify the claims.
The US said on Tuesday that its own intelligence supported Israel’s conclusions that Hamas used Shifa as a command centre and used tunnels beneath the complex to conceal military operations and possibly hold some of the more than 240 hostages seized during last month’s attack into Israel.
Israel has so far presented in public only limited evidence of the alleged command complex under al-Shifa, though it is widely accepted that Hamas has an extensive tunnel network across Gaza.
Hamas, which has repeatedly denied the claim that it uses medical facilities as military bases, on Wednesday said US President Joe Biden was “wholly responsible” for the assault, accusing his administration of giving Israel “the green light … to commit more massacres against civilians”. Doctors working at the hospital have previously called the claims an “outlandish excuse”.
The military operation at the hospital will fuel growing outrage around the world at the civilian toll of the military offensive launched by Israel, which followed attacks by Hamas into Israel last month which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians at home or at a dance party.
UN secretary general António Guterres was deeply disturbed by the “dramatic loss of life” in the hospitals, his spokesperson said. “In the name of humanity, the secretary-general calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” the spokesperson told reporters.
More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the health ministry in Gaza, which between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing.
A White House official, speaking after the Israeli operation on Shifa was announced, said it does not want to see a firefight in the hospital. A spokesperson for the National Security Council, who did not wish to be named, said: “We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don’t want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire.”
The fate of Shifa has become a focus of international alarm because of worsening conditions in the facility in recent days.
Witnesses have described conditions inside the hospital as horrific, with medical procedures taking place without anaesthetic, families with scant food or water living in corridors, and the stench of decomposing corpses filling the air.
“There are bodies littered in the hospital complex and there is no longer electricity at the morgues,” hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya said prior to the operation.
As well as inpatients and health workers, there are about 1,500 displaced people seeking shelter there, according to information shared with the World Health Organization, which was posted on Sunday on X.
In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said: “Based on intelligence information and an operational necessity, IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa hospital.
“The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians.”
Israeli troops have now consolidated their hold on much of northern Gaza, capturing the territory’s legislature building and its police headquarters.
However fighting is continuing in Sha’ati Camp, a coastal neighbourhood that has long been a Hamas stronghold, military officials told the Guardian.
Israel has sworn to “crush” Hamas but analysts say it will be difficult to entirely eradicate the organisation by military means alone.
Around two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been made homeless by the offensive, unable to escape the territory where food, fuel, fresh water and medical supplies are running out.
Many have fled to the southern half of Gaza, some through “humanitarian corridors” opened by Israel troops. Air strikes and bombardment of south Gaza have continued, however.
Recent rains have brought new hardship to the displaced. Speaking to the Guardian from one shelter near Khan Younis, the southern city, a UN official said the solar panels that provided an important source of power were no longer working, meaning few could charge phones or run basic appliances.
“In a day or so we will totally run out of fuel for the generators and then we will have nothing at all. It is cold and wet and very bad for the people in the open. We already have very poor hygiene here and lots of diseases and this will just make things much worse again,” he said.
Israeli defence officials said they have agreed to allow some fuel shipments into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian operations. It was the first time that Israel has allowed fuel into the besieged territory since Hamas’ cross-border attack on 7 October.
Goudat Samy al-Madhoun, a health care worker, said he was among around 50 patients, staff and displaced people who made it out of Shifa and to the south on Monday, including a woman who had been receiving kidney dialysis. He said those remaining in the hospital were mainly eating dates.
Al-Madhoun said Israeli forces fired on the group several times, wounding one man who had to be left behind. The dialysis patient’s son was detained at an Israeli checkpoint on the road south, he said.
The military said it placed 300 litres (79 gallons) of fuel several blocks from Shifa, but Hamas militants prevented staff from reaching it. The health ministry disputed that, saying Israel refused its request that the Red Crescent bring them the fuel rather than staff venturing out for it. The fuel would have provided less than an hour of electricity, it said.
With Reuters and Associated Press
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
