The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Raid on Shifa Hospital grows into one of the longest of war
One of Israel’s longest and deadliest hospital raids of the war in the Gaza Strip stretched into a fourth day Thursday, as the military said it had killed more than a hundred people it described as terrorists in the previous 24 hours in its operation at Shifa Hospital.
Israel has staged a series of raids on Shifa in northern Gaza, the largest medical facility in the territory, arguing that Hamas used it as a command center and concealed weapons and fighters in underground tunnels there. Since the latest attack began Monday, the Israeli military has reported killing more than 140 people it said were terrorists in and around the hospital, far more than in past raids. The Israeli accounts could not be independently verified.
The Al Jazeera news network and Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s news agency, reported Israeli forces had blown up a building used for surgery that is one of the largest at the complex. The Israeli military said it had no comment on the reports.
The military said in an earlier statement it was continuing to “conduct precise operational activity in the Shifa Hospital, eliminating dozens of terrorists over the past day during exchanges of fire.” It also said it was preventing harm to civilians and had located storage sites for weapons.
The World Health Organization had hoped to conduct a mission to the hospital Thursday to provide fuel and food for staff and patients, as well as to assess the situation, but permission had been denied because of security issues, said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, who represents the organization in Gaza and the West Bank.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the “gaps are narrowing” in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas over another cease-fire and hostage release the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have spent several weeks trying to broker.
Blinken is making his sixth visit to the
region since the start of the war; his trip began in Saudi Arabia before going to Egypt on Thursday with a stop in Israel planned for today. In an interview Wednesday with the Al-Hadath network in Saudi Arabia, Blinken said mediators worked with Israel to put a “strong proposal” on the table. He said Hamas rejected it, but came back with other demands that the mediators are working on. “The gaps are narrowing, and I think an agreement is very much possible,” Blinken said.
The Health Ministry in Gaza raised the territory’s death toll Thursday to nearly 32,000 Palestinians. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.