Clinics in sight again
Israel: Command center bombed by Islamists
March 31, 2024, 7:45 p.m
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Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have been the scene of repeated fighting – and are again. Apparently Israeli soldiers are attacking the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Clinic in Dair al-Balah. There is said to have been a chase in the Shifa hospital in Gaza.
An Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip hit a tent camp in the courtyard of the overcrowded Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Two Palestinians were killed and another 15 injured, including journalists who were working nearby. The clinic and its surroundings have sought refuge for thousands of people who were forced to leave their homes elsewhere in the Gaza Strip as a result of the fighting.
The Israeli military said the attack hit an Islamic Jihad command center. The operation of the hospital was not affected. Israel accuses the militant Islamist Hamas and other extremist groups of operating from medical facilities and their surrounding areas. According to the army, members of the terrorist organization were in the jihadist command center. The Hamas-controlled media office in the Gaza Strip said the attacked tent belonged to people seeking shelter.
Army deployment also in Schifa Clinic
The army’s operations against extremists entrenched there also continued in the Shifa hospital in the city of Gaza in the north of the coastal strip. According to reports, people were killed in several of the clinic’s buildings and the military spoke of terrorists. In a stairwell, soldiers chased and exchanged fire with armed and high-ranking members of Hamas, killing them in the process. The army also found hidden weapons in the maternity ward of the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip. Grenades, explosive devices and rifles were found in pillows, blankets and walls.
Given the dire humanitarian situation and the many civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, there is a lot of international criticism of the Israeli military’s actions. The Hamas-controlled health authority said the number of Palestinians killed in the coastal strip since the war began six months ago had risen to 32,782. The number of people injured since then is 75,298. In its information, which is also difficult to verify, the authority does not differentiate between fighters and civilians.