© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises throughout an Israeli raid at Al Shifa hospital and the world round it, amid the continuing battle between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Gaza Metropolis, March 21, 2024. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/File Picture
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(Corrects byline)
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Bassam Masoud
CAIRO/GAZA, March 23 (Reuters) – Preventing raged on Saturday round Gaza’s fundamental hospital the place Israel says it has to date killed greater than 170 gunmen in an intensive raid, which the Palestinian Well being Ministry says has additionally resulted within the deaths of 5 sufferers.
The armed wing of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad stated their fighters had been engaged in battles with the Israeli forces outdoors and across the neighborhood of Al Shifa hospital in Gaza Metropolis, although Hamas denies any presence inside the ability.
Israeli troops stormed Al Shifa within the early hours of Monday morning and have been combing via the sprawling complicated, which the army says is linked to a tunnel community used as a base for Hamas and different Palestinian fighters.
The Gaza well being ministry stated 5 wounded Palestinians “besieged” inside Al Shifa died on account of being denied correct care, water and meals for the previous six days and that the situation of different injured sufferers was deteriorating.
The Israeli army, which has misplaced two troopers in fight on the hospital, says it’s stopping hurt to civilians, sufferers and medical employees there and offering them with meals, water and satisfactory entry to healthcare.
Reuters has been unable to entry the hospital and confirm both account.
Al Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital earlier than the conflict, is now one of many few healthcare amenities even partially operational within the north of the territory, and had additionally been housing displaced civilians.
Residents residing close by stated Israeli forces blew up dozens of homes and flats within the streets across the hospital and bulldozed roads. They stated a close-by non-public medical heart, Al-Helo Hospital, was additionally hit by the military.
The Hamas-run Gaza authorities media workplace stated Israeli tanks hit a number of buildings at Al Shifa Hospital and set hearth to a surgical procedure division and that round 240 sufferers and their companions in addition to dozens of healthcare employees had been detained.
The Israeli army stated that greater than 350 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants have to date been detained on the hospital and a complete of 800 individuals have been questioned.
HAMAS DENIES ARMED PRESENCE
In latest days, Hamas spokespeople have stated that the lifeless introduced in earlier Israeli statements weren’t fighters however sufferers and displaced individuals.
Israel confronted heavy criticism final November when troops first raided the hospital. The troops uncovered tunnels there, which they stated had been used as command and management centres by Hamas.
Israeli forces shot and killed Palestinian pharmacologist, Mohammad Al-Nono outdoors Al Shifa hospital after they ordered him to evacuate, together with some colleagues, his household stated. A member of the household stated they realized about his dying from different medical doctors. The Israeli army had no rapid remark.
Nono is the brother of Taher Al-Nono, who serves because the media adviser to Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh.
Hamas media stated elsewhere in Gaza Metropolis, seven Palestinians had been killed on Saturday and several other others wounded on the Kuwait roundabout whereas they waited for help vans.
“We survived dying, they shot at us, there are a lot of martyrs, there are a lot of injured, we nearly died to get our kids a chew to eat,” stated Alaa al-Khoudary, a resident of Gaza Metropolis who had simply returned from the Kuwait roundabout carrying a bag of help.
In Rafah, the place over 1,000,000 individuals have been sheltering, well being officers stated an Israeli air strike on a home killed eight individuals and wounded others.
The Israeli army stated that it killed at the very least 20 gunmen in air strikes and close-encounter fight in central Gaza and within the southern space of Khan Younis.
Greater than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed for the reason that begin of Israel’s offensive within the Gaza Strip, in accordance with well being authorities within the Hamas-ruled enclave.
The conflict was triggered when Hamas fighters crossed into southern Israel on a rampage on Oct.7, killing 1,200 individuals and capturing 253 hostages, in accordance with Israeli tallies.
(This story has been refiled to right the byline)