Published: 14 November 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
IDF closes in on Al-Shifa hospital believed to house Hamas command centre; injuries from Lebanon missiles; reports of hostage negotiations.
As Israel’s ground offensive in the Gaza Strip enters its third week, several hospitals in northern Gaza have become the focus of an international spotlight, as the battle frontline reached several of these medical facilities.
Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals, in particular, and Gazan civilians, in general, as human shields. On the other hand, Palestinian voices and reports portray the hospitals as under siege or in the line of fire.
Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City has exhausted its food supply and has no water or electricity, its director said Saturday, while the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health called it "out of service" amid persistent Israeli fire.
IDF Spokesperson Rear. Adm. Daniel Hagari said Hamas had lost its grip on the northern Gaza Strip and failed to prevent residents from fleeing. To keep more Gazans from heading south, he said, Hamas "is lying about what is happening in the hospitals."
"In the past few hours, false news has been published that we are surrounding Al-Shifa Hospital and attacking it. These are false reports. We are fighting with terrorists who choose to fight right next to hospitals."
He also said that Israel had been falsely blamed for an alleged bombing of the hospital a day earlier. "We checked our systems, and once again it was a failed launch by terrorist organizations in the strip. Hamas is committing a war crime in its use of hospitals."
Up until Friday, some 50,000 Gazans were staying around the Al-Shifa complex. Most left the area as the IDF approached but some 800 wounded and sick, as well as a substantial medical staff, are still at the hospital. The IDF said that it was in contact with Al-Shifa’s director and continued to allow people to exit from its eastern time.
Israeli security forces delivered 300 litres of diesel fuel to Al-Shifa Hospital early Sunday morning and later received intelligence indicating that Hamas had stopped the delivery.
"The offer belittles the pain and suffering of the patients who are trapped inside without water, food, or electricity. This quantity is not enough to operate hospital generators for more than thirty minutes," Hamas said in a statement.
The Biden administration has expressed concern in conversations with Israeli officials over the possibility that Israel will conquer the Al-Shifa hospital compound in Gaza while there are patients and medical staff inside.
At the same time, the US did not dispute Israel’s intelligence assessment regarding Hamas’ use of the hospital, and said that “without getting into intelligence information, we can just look at the open source reporting that Hamas is using hospitals, as it uses many other civilian facilities, for command and control, for weapons storage, to house its fighters. And this is a violation of the laws of war.”
The European Union on Sunday also condemned Hamas for using "hospitals and civilians as human shields" in Gaza, while also urging Israel to show "maximum restraint" to protect civilians.
The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, cited an Israeli official as saying some of the Israeli hostages might be held underneath the hospital.
Over the weekend, reports of a potential hostage deal emerged citing a US administration official that would see some 80 women and children held hostage by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza released in exchange for Israel freeing imprisoned female and underage terror convicts. On Sunday, however a Palestinian official briefed on talks over the release of hostages said Hamas had suspended the negotiations because of the way Israel had handled Al-Shifa Hospital.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has made clear he wanted Israel to retain overall security control in Gaza.
With increasing missile attacks coming from Lebanon, Hagari has said they the IDF has "action plans to change the security situation" on Israel’s northern frontier.
The IDF said it struck a Hezbollah cell and hit several Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, including a weapons depot, after a Hezbollah anti-tank missile struck a number of Israeli vehicles near the northern community of Dovev, close to the border.
At least 14 civilians were wounded, including one seriously, and in another attack, seven soldiers were wounded by a mortar near the northern community of Menara.
READ MORE
WATCH: Israeli forces surround biggest Palestinian hospital (CNN)
WATCH: Hamas blocks IDF fuel delivery to Gaza's Shifa Hospital (Jerusalem Post)
US Warns Israel Against Civilian Casualties in Battle at Al-Shifa (Haaretz)
What do we know about hospitals in north Gaza? - explainer (Jerusalem Post)
EU condemns Hamas for using 'hospitals as human shields', urges Israeli restraint (Reuters)
Israel-Hamas Deal to Release Gaza Hostages Could Be Days Away, Source Says (Haaretz)
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Photo: Smoke rises from one of the buildings of Al-Shifa Hospital, in Gaza, last week (Stringer/Reuters)
