The decision to send troops into al-Shifa hospital marked an escalation of Israel's offensive in Gaza, amid increased calls for a ceasefire.
Witnesses reported seeing tanks and masked soldiers in the grounds of the hospital around 3am as patients and civilians remained trapped inside.
"Hospitals are not battlegrounds," said the WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "We've lost touch again with health personnel at the hospital.
We're extremely worried for their and their patients' safety." The Israeli army said its troops had conducted a "precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area".
Later yesterday a senior Israeli military official said that "weapons and other terror infrastructure" had been found during the operation "in one specific area".
The official told reporters that four militants had died in a clash outside, and that there had been no fighting inside the hospital complex and no friction with medical staff or patients, who he said were in a different section of the site.
"IDF soldiers have already found weapons and other terror infrastructure. In the last hour, we saw concrete evidence that Hamas terrorists used the Shifa hospital as a terror headquarter," the official said, declining to be named. He did not specify what had been found but said the evidence would be presented later.
Hamas denied the claim, which it said was "nothing but a continuation of the lies and cheap propaganda, through which [Israel] is trying to give justification for its crime aimed at destroying the health sector in Gaza".
Bu hikaye The Guardian dergisinin November 16, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye The Guardian dergisinin November 16, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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