Hamas is said to have entrenched itself
Israel calls for evacuation of Shifa clinic
March 18, 2024, 2:07 p.m
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The call may come a little late. Because of renewed fighting, the Israeli army is appealing to people in Shifa Hospital and its surroundings to seek safety. Accordingly, Hamas terrorists should use the clinic as a base again.
Against the backdrop of ongoing fighting in the Shifa Hospital in the city of Gaza, the Israeli army has called on people in the building and in the surrounding neighborhoods to leave the conflict zone. “To ensure your safety, you must immediately clear the area to the west and then (…) to the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi (on the Gaza coast),” an Israeli military spokesman wrote on Platform X.
The call was aimed at everyone in the Rimal district as well as in the Shifa Hospital and its surroundings. According to eyewitnesses, leaflets with this call were also dropped over the area. Combat units of the Israeli armed forces moved into the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip during the night.
An army spokesman justified this by saying that the Islamist Hamas had regrouped and holed up in the hospital complex. Intelligence information indicated that the clinic was being used by senior members of Hamas to carry out terrorist activities. The information could not be independently verified.
Thousands of patients and displaced persons in the clinic
The army had originally stated that there was no obligation for patients and medical staff to leave the hospital. Eyewitnesses reported in the morning that the fighting was continuing. By then, the Israeli army had arrested around 80 people, including medical staff. According to this information, which cannot be independently verified, there are 3,000 patients and 10,000 war displaced persons in the complex.
The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry said Israel’s unannounced military action at Shifa Hospital was “aimed at destroying the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip.” Hamas said in a statement: “The Israeli army is committing a new crime against Shifa Hospital.”
The Israeli military had already entered the Shifa Hospital in mid-November despite massive international criticism. The army said it found a Hamas tunnel complex there. The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations on October 7th in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip