Two and a half weeks after sending tanks and ground troops into northern Gaza, Israeli forces searched a hospital Wednesday where they claim Hamas militants operate.Mohammed Zaqout, the director of hospitals in Gaza, said Israeli tanks were inside the medical compound and that soldiers had entered buildings, including the emergency and surgery departments, which house intensive care units.
Shifa Hospital has become a symbol of the widespread suffering of Palestinian civilians in the war between Israel and Hamas, which erupted after the militant group killed some 1,200 people and seized around 240 captives in a surprise Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel.
The Israeli army claims the militant group uses hospitals as cover for its fighters, and has set up its main command center in and beneath Shifa Hospital, the largest in the besieged territory. Both Hamas and Shifa Hospital staff deny the Israeli allegations.
More than 11,200 Palestinians — two-thirds of them women and minors — have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing.
Currently:
— The Israeli military has set its sights on southern Gaza in its campaign to stamp out Hamas.
— The U.N. Security Council has adopted a resolution on the Israel-Hamas war.
— ASEAN defense chiefs call for the fighting in Gaza to cease, but they struggle to address Myanmar.
— Thousands flee Gaza’s main hospital but hundreds, including babies, are still trapped by fighting.
— Israel supporters rally in Washington, crying never again.’ U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Wednesday calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors” in Gaza after four failed attempts to respond to the Israel-Hamas war. The vote was 12-0 with the United States, United Kingdom and Russia abstaining.
OVER 600 PEOPLE LEFT GAZA AT RAFAH BORDER CROSSING, HAMAS SAYS
RAFAH – A total of 644 people traveled through the Rafah border crossing from Gaza into Egypt on Wednesday, said Wael Abou Omar, the Hamas spokesperson for the border crossing. Those included 587 dual nationals, 37 people either injured or sick, and 20 of their companions. No more information was immediately available. Earlier at the Rafah border, dozens of evacuees were waiting patiently with their documentation ready for inspection. Among them was Toqa al-Zaian, a Palestinian with Norwegian nationality, struggling to say goodbye. “I feel like my body is leaving without my soul, now I am leaving everything behind, my mother, family and everyone I know,” she said.
ISRAEL RELEASES VIDEO OF WEAPONS IT SAYS WERE FOUND IN SHIFA HOSPITAL
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military displayed what it says are Hamas weapons and military equipment it uncovered in Gaza’s Shifa Hospital. But so far, its search showed no signs of tunnels or a sophisticated command center that it has said Hamas maintains on the grounds of the hospital. Hamas and Gaza health officials deny militants operate in Shifa.
The army early Wednesday raided the hospital, Gaza’s largest. After a daylong search, the army released a video showing several AK-47 automatic rifles, ammunition, grenades, protective vests and other equipment used by Hamas. It said many of the items were in duffel bags in the hospital’s MRI department.“These weapons have absolutely no business being inside a hospital,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said in the military’s video.The Associated Press could not independently verify the Israeli claims that the weapons were found inside the hospital.
