Battles rage at 2 hospitals in Gaza, raising concern
UN court orders Israel to take humanitarian measures in area
JERUSALEM >> The Israeli military said Thursday that it was carrying out raids in and around two hospitals in the Gaza Strip, as the United Nations and aid groups expressed alarm for patients and medical workers there and warned of the rapidly deteriorating state of Gaza’s health care system.
Fierce battles have been raging in and around Shifa Hospital, the largest in the strip, since an Israeli assault there began 10 days ago.
The renewed fighting around the hospital, which Israel first raided in November, underscores the problems Israel has had in maintaining control of parts of Gaza its forces have supposedly captured.
The Israeli military said in a statement that nearly 200 people whom it called “terrorists” had been killed in the area and that its troops had taken fire from militants inside and outside one of the hospital’s buildings. Gaza authorities said that over the course of the raid, more than 200 civilians had been killed and another 1,000 had been detained. Neither claim could be independently verified.
Israel maintains that Hamas, the armed group that led an attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, is using hospitals in Gaza for military purposes, a claim that Hamas and hospital administrators have denied.
Witnesses have described days of fear as fighting has continued at the Shifa complex, with several patients dying as a result of the assault.
“We are constantly hearing strikes and gunfire day and night and seeing smoke rising from buildings,” said Ezzeldine alDali, who lives less than a mile from Shifa. He said several homes in the area were set on fire by Israeli forces after their occupants evacuated. That claim could not be independently verified.
“The scale of destruction around us is indescribable,” said al-Dali, 22, in a voice message Thursday.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, said Thursday that Gaza’s health system was “barely surviving.” He called for “an immediate end to attacks on hospitals” and for the protection of medical staff, patients and civilians.
In another development, the top United Nations court on Thursday ordered Israel to take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into the war-ravaged enclave.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands issued two new so-called provisional measures in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of acts of genocide in its military campaign launched after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.
Israel denies it is committing genocide. It says its military campaign is self defense and aimed at Hamas, not the Palestinian people.
Thursday’s order came after South Africa sought more provisional measures, including a ceasefire, citing starvation in Gaza. Israel urged the court not to issue new orders.
In its legally binding order, the court told Israel to take measures “without delay” to ensure “the unhindered provision” of basic services and humanitarian assistance.
It also ordered Israel to immediately ensure that its military does not take action that could that could harm Palestinians’ rights under the Genocide Convention.