By Nidal al-Mughrabi, GAZA
Palestine
Israeli troops found a command centre and weapons and combat gear belonging to Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza's biggest hospital on Wednesday, Israel's military said, in a campaign that stoked global alarm over the fate of civilians inside.
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Al
Shifa hospital had become the chief target of a Gaza City incursion by
Israeli forces, who said the "beating heart" of the Hamas fighters'
operations was headquartered in tunnels beneath it. Hamas denied the accusation
and on Wednesday dismissed the Israeli statements as "lies and cheap
propaganda".
Israeli military spokesman
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the troops were still searching, having entered
the hospital early on Wednesday after days of clashes around it.
The military simultaneously
released a video it said showed some of the materials
it recovered from an undisclosed building in the hospital compound,
including automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets.
In one hospital department,
"the soldiers located an operational command centre and technological
assets belonging to Hamas, indicating that the terrorist organization uses the
hospital for terrorist purposes," an Israeli military statement said.
Israel has consistently said
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."
"We will reach and eliminate Hamas and we will bring back our hostages. These are two sacred missions," he said.
Israel began its campaign to
wipe out the Islamist group that rules Gaza after militants rampaged through
southern Israel on Oct. 7. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and some 240
captives taken in the deadliest day of its 75-year-old history.
Since then, Israel has put
Gaza's population of 2.3 million under siege, battering the crowded strip with
air strikes. Gaza health officials, considered reliable by the United Nations,
say about 11,500 Palestinians are now confirmed killed, around 40% 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.
Israel said its troops had
entered the hospital compound on Wednesday 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 an at times tense situation as Israeli
troops moved between buildings. 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", at a location Reuters verified was
inside Al Shifa. Other photos 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 that many
patients including three newborn
babies died in recent days while Israel encircled the hospital.
"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 that
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 that these supplies reach those
in need," it said.
The United Nations Security
Council on Wednesday called for urgent and extended humanitarian
pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas militants for a
"sufficient number of days" to allow humanitarian aid access. It also
called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by
Hamas. The 15-member council overcame an impasse in four attempts to take
action last month.
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.
An official briefed on
the negotiations said Qatari mediators were seeking a deal that would
include a three-day truce, with Hamas releasing 50 of its captives and Israel
to release some women and minors from among its security detainees.
The official said Hamas had
agreed to the outlines of the deal but Israel had not and was still negotiating
terms.
The head of the World Health
Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters the Israeli
incursion into Al Shifa Hospital was "totally unacceptable".
"Hospitals are not
battlegrounds," he said in Geneva.
Dr Ahmed El Mohallalati, a
surgeon, told Reuters by phone that Al Shifa staff had hidden as fighting
unfolded around the hospital overnight. As he spoke, the sound of what he
described as "continuous shooting from the tanks" could be heard in the
background.
"One of the big tanks
entered within the hospital from the eastern main gate, and ... they just
parked in the front of the hospital emergency department," he said.
The Israelis had told the
hospital administration in advance that they planned to enter, he said. By
mid-morning, he and other staff had yet to receive instructions from the
troops, although the soldiers were "metres away" from them.
After five days during which
he said the hospital had come under repeated Israeli attack, it was a relief at
least to have reached an "end point", with troops now inside the
grounds instead of outside shooting in, Mohallalati said.
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