“Weapon and terror structure”
Israel: 480 arrests in Shifa clinic
March 24, 2024, 10:42 a.m
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Israel has been carrying out an operation in the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip for around a week. According to its own statements, the military has killed dozens of terrorists and arrested hundreds. The WHO sees even emergency medical operations at risk from the procedure.
The Israeli army continued its operation at Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip over the weekend. The military said “around 480 terrorists with ties to the terrorist organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad were arrested there.” In addition, “weapons and terrorist infrastructure” were found in the largest clinic in the Palestinian territory. Since the operation began a week ago, the military says it has killed dozens of terrorists in the area of the hospital. The information could not initially be independently verified.
According to World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, contact with health workers at Shifa Hospital has been lost. “The ongoing situation could impact the hospital’s ability to function at least at a minimal level and deprive people of critical, life-saving treatment,” he warned on Friday on X. “We repeat: hospitals are not combat zones. They must be in line with international protected under humanitarian law.”
First use in November
Israel’s army had already entered the Shifa hospital in mid-November. According to her own statements, she also found a Hamas tunnel complex there. According to the army, numerous terrorists later returned to the clinic. Israel accuses Hamas of systematically misusing medical facilities for military purposes. The Islamist organization has denied this.
According to the military, the operation will prevent harm to civilians, patients, medics and medical equipment. As part of the operation, patients were moved to a designated complex at the clinic to protect them. This, too, could not be independently verified.
The army said that within one day the air force had attacked 65 targets in the northern and central Gaza Strip. These include tunnels that were used for attacks and military facilities. A workshop for manufacturing drones was found in the central section of the coastal strip. There were fights with terrorists outside the building, and several of them were killed.