Israel's hospital raid one of the longest of the war
One of Israel's longest hospital raids of the war in the Gaza Strip stretched into a fourth day Thursday, as the military said that it had killed dozens of 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.
On Thursday, the military said it had also detained 600 people at the hospital. The Israeli accounts could not be independently verified.
The Al Jazeera news network and Wafa, the Palestinian Authority's news agency, reported Thursday that 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.
Iyad Elejel, who lives about 500 yards from Shifa, said the situation was “very terrifying,” adding in a phone call Thursday: “We are hearing the constant sounds of clashes, gunshots, shelling, bombing, quadcopters and planes all day and all night.” Smoke had infiltrated the apartment where he is staying with 30 relatives, making it hard to breathe, he said.
Elejel said the children in the apartment were becoming used to the cacophony. “We try to convince them that the sounds they are hearing are from fireworks, but they don't believe it,” he said.
Nobody has been able to leave the apartment since the raid began, Elejel said, and the family feared that they could run out of food soon. He said that when he looked out his window Thursday morning, he saw “many dead bodies lying on the main street” out front. Israeli soldiers have been forcing people in the area to leave their apartments and head south, so the neighborhood was emptying out, Elejel said.
The military said in an earlier statement that 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.
Mohammed Abu Kmail, a 35-year-old marketing consultant, said in an interview that he was with his wife and two daughters in their apartment, near the hospital, when they woke up before dawn Tuesday to the sound of gunfire close to their building.
He said that around 8 a.m., Israeli soldiers entered nearby buildings, and stripped and handcuffed about 25 men, including himself. He said that, after being scanned by a camera, he and some of the others were released. The account resembled those of other men detained in Gaza.
The Israeli military said in a statement that detained people “are treated in accordance with international law” and that “it is often necessary” to have detainees remove clothing so they “can be searched and to ensure that they are not concealing explosive vests or other weaponry.”
Israeli forces have carried out a series of raids on medical facilities in Gaza, arguing that Hamas has used them for military purposes.
The armed group has denied doing so.
Israel made northern Gaza the initial target of its ground invasion of the enclave, which started on Oct. 27, and it first raided the hospital in November.