Israel raids Gaza hospital

Israeli forces stormed Gaza’s largest hospital filled with Palestinian patients and displaced individuals, firing shots into the air while wearing face masks.

“All men 16 years and above, raise your hands,” a soldier shouted in accented Arabic through a loudspeaker to those sheltering inside Al-Shifa hospital, which has become the center of fierce urban combat for days.

“Exit the building towards the courtyard and surrender,” the soldier ordered, according to a journalist who visited the embattled hospital several days ago for interviews and was trapped inside because of the fighting outside.

About 1,000 male Palestinians, their hands above their heads, were soon led into the vast hospital courtyard, some of them stripped naked by Israeli soldiers checking them for weapons or explosives, the journalist told AFP Wednesday.

The army labeled the raid a “precise and targeted” operation against Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that launched the October 7 attacks and which Israel claims is running a command center in tunnels beneath the clinic.

Israeli and Palestinian officials both reported the overnight military operations at Al-Shifa, the focal point of days of deadly fighting and nearby aerial bombardments.

Witnesses have described conditions inside the hospital as horrific, with medical procedures performed without anesthetic, families with scant food or water living in corridors, and the stench of decomposing corpses filling the air.

As Israeli forces raced through the corridors, hundreds of young men emerged from different wards, including the maternity section, which was hit by a strike a few days ago, the journalist reported.

Soldiers were firing warning shots as they moved from room to room looking for Hamas militants, he said, adding that the troops were also searching women and children, some of whom were in tears.