The Israeli military said it was carrying out a raid on Wednesday against Hamas militants in Al Shifa Hospital, having urged them to surrender with thousands of Palestinian civilians still sheltering inside Gaza Strip's biggest hospital.
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Dr. Munir al-Bursh, director-general of the Gaza health ministry, told Al-Jazeera television that Israeli forces had raided the western side of the medical complex.
"There are big explosions and dust entered the areas where we are. We believe an explosion occurred inside the hospital," Bursh said.
Video: Shifa medics evacuate patients 'with difficulty' as Israel launches raid / Credit: Reuters
Hours later, Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra to Al-Jazeera: "The occupation army is now in the basement, and searching the basement. They are inside the complex, shooting and carrying out bombings".
Israeli forces first raided the surgery and emergency departments, Mohammed Zaqout, the Gaza health ministry's director of hospitals, told Al-Jazeera.
Video: IDF releases footage showing terrorists carrying RPG at hospital / Credit:x/@idf
In a statement, the 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 military added: "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 army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told CNN the hospital and compound were for Hamas "a central hub of their operations, perhaps even the beating heart and maybe even a center of gravity."
The US said on Tuesday that its own intelligence supported Israel's conclusions.
Hamas said on Wednesday that US announcement had effectively given a "green light" for Israel to raid the hospital. The group said it held Israel and US President Joe Biden fully responsible for the operation.
"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. Hospitals and patients must be protected," a White House National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement.
Israeli forces have waged fierce street battles against Hamas fighters over the past 10 days before advancing into the center of Gaza City and surrounding Al Shifa.
Israel has sworn to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the militants' cross-border assault into Israel on Oct 7. Israel says Hamas murdered 1,200 people in the rampage and took more than 240 hostages.
In the West Bank, a separate Palestinian enclave not controlled by Hamas, Palestinian Authority Health Minister Mai Alkaila said Israel was "committing a new crime against humanity, medical staff and patients by besieging" Al Shifa.
"We hold the occupation forces fully responsible for the lives of the medical staff, patients, and displaced people in Al Shifa," Alkaila said in a statement.
Al Shifa is a sprawling complex of buildings and courtyards a few hundred meters from Gaza City's fishing port. Buildings on the western side of the complex, which the Gaza official said was the site of the raid, include the internal medicine and dialysis departments.
Hamas says 650 patients and 5,000 to 7,000 other civilians are trapped inside the hospital grounds, under constant fire from Israeli snipers and drones. Amid shortages of fuel, water, and supplies, it says 40 patients have died in recent days.
Thirty-six babies are left from the neo-natal ward after three died, it claimed without proof. Israel began placing incubators nearby this week, but Hamas refused to let medical staff take them.
Qidra said there were about 100 bodies decomposing inside and no way to get them out.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was deeply disturbed by the "dramatic loss of life" in the hospitals, his spokesman said. "In the name of humanity, the secretary-general calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire," the spokesman told reporters.
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