The Israeli army announced early Monday morning that it was undertaking a new operation at Gaza’s largest hospital.
Troops are carrying out a “precise operation” following reports that senior Hamas officials were using Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as a command center to plan and carry out terrorist attacks, the Israeli military said in a statement. a statement.
Loud bangs lit up the sky in unverified video footage posted on social media, with one person saying the area was “under siege” and a “complete disorder” in what was described as an “Israeli bombardment”.
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said the operation targeted limited areas within the hospital complex based on “concrete intelligence that required immediate action.”
“Our focused mission is not just an operational necessity; it is a global imperative,” he said in video footage published on the IDF’s Page X.
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said the operation at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza targeted limited areas of the hospital complex.
Troops are carrying out a “precise operation” following reports that senior Hamas officials were using Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as a command center to plan and carry out terrorist attacks, the Israeli military said in a statement. a statement.
“Our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza. We do not seek to harm the civilians behind whom Hamas is hiding,” Hagari said.
He added: “We call on all Hamas terrorists hiding in hospitals to surrender immediately. Medical facilities should never be exploited for terrorist purposes. Hamas must be held responsible.
IDF and Arabic-speaking medics accompanied security forces during the operation to facilitate communication with patients and staff, The Times of Israel reported.
Patients and doctors were not ordered to evacuate, but the paths were cleared for civilians, the outlet reported.
The Israeli military said that “the IDF will continue the humanitarian effort and provide additional food, water and supplies to patients and civilians in the complex” once the mission is complete.
The hospital became the center of the war between Israel and Hamas in November as Israel moved closer to what it sees as a front for a Hamas stronghold – claims denied by the hospital and the Hamas.
The hospital became the center of the war between Israel and Hamas in November when the Israeli military said it had discovered tunnels it said were used by Hamas.
Smoke and explosions rise inside the Gaza Strip, seen from southern Israel, Sunday March 17.
Israeli troops, some wearing masks and firing into the air, stormed the hospital that month.
They claimed to have found a tunnel shaft during the raid which they believe was used by Hamas terrorists.
The IDF released a video showing the entrance to a tunnel in an area outside Al-Shifa Hospital, two days after Israeli troops entered the compound to search for a Hamas command center which they said , is located under the medical facility.
During the raid, Israel said its troops discovered the bodies of two hostages – Yehudit Weiss, 64, and Israeli soldier Noa Marciano, 19 – in a building adjacent to the hospital.
The new operation comes just a day after Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not accept a Gaza peace deal that leaves his country “weak” and “unable to defend itself against hostile neighbors.”
Israel’s prime minister said a potential deal like that would “set peace back, not forward” during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Jerusalem.
He also reiterated that “Israel must take the necessary responsibility for security” in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (right) shake hands after a joint press conference following their meeting in Jerusalem on March 17.
It comes as Netanyahu vowed that civilians crowded into Rafah would be allowed to leave before Israel launches a new offensive against Hamas, dealing a further blow to ceasefire hopes.
His comments, alongside Scholz’s visit, follow international fears over the fate of the estimated 1.5 million people who have sought refuge in Rafah, most of them displaced by the war in Gaza.
The right-wing prime minister’s office, whose security and war cabinets were due to discuss the latest international efforts toward a truce deal, said Friday it approved the military plan for an operation in Rafah as well as “the evacuation of the population. .
“Our objective of eliminating the remaining terrorist battalions in Rafah goes hand in hand with that of allowing the civilian population to leave Rafah. This is not something we will do by keeping people locked in place,” Netanyahu said during a press conference with Scholz.
As others have done, Scholz raised the question: “How do we protect more than 1.5 million people?” Where should they go?
An Israeli soldier atop a tank on the border with the Gaza Strip, southern Israel, Sunday March 17.
Palestinians, including children, salvage remaining belongings from the rubble of destroyed homes after Israeli attacks on the house belonging to the Sabit family as Israeli attacks continue on the Gaza Strip on March 17.
A view of the area after the Israeli attack on a building in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on March 16
The United States – which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military assistance – has said it wants a “clear and actionable plan” to ensure civilians are “out of harm’s way”.
Before meeting Scholz, Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting that “no international pressure will prevent us from achieving all the objectives of the war” and that to do so, “we will also operate in Rafah.”
Israel has repeatedly threatened a ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, where people are sheltering in tents packed against the Egyptian border.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for opposition to a military operation there, “in the name of humanity”.
Tedros said “this humanitarian catastrophe must not get worse.”
Netanyahu leads a coalition of religious and ultranationalist parties. His failure to bring home hostages taken by Hamas militants during their attack that sparked the war led to rising protests at home as well as nationwide calls for early elections.
The unprecedented Hamas attack from Gaza on October 7 left around 1,160 dead in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an official AFP count.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has carried out relentless bombings and a ground offensive that have killed at least 31,645 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.