The Israeli military has claimed that it killed around 90 gunmen and arrested 160 others during a raid on Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, an allegation that the Islamist Hamas group has vehemently denied. The hospital, which was the Gaza Strip's largest healthcare facility before the war, has been housing displaced civilians and is one of the few partially operational medical centers in the north of the territory.
In a statement, the Israeli military said, "Over the past day, the troops have eliminated terrorists and located weapons in the hospital area, while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment." The military also published the names and photographs of two Israeli soldiers killed in the operation, which began in the early hours of Monday.
However, Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of Gaza's Hamas-run government media office, denied the Israeli claims, stating that all those killed were wounded patients and displaced persons inside the hospital. "The Israeli occupation army practices lying and deception in spreading its narrative as part of justifying its continuous and law-breaking crimes, which violate international law, international humanitarian law," he said.
Business Times has not been able to verify either account independently.
The raid on Al Shifa hospital has entered its third day, with displaced Palestinians sheltering in the facility describing long detentions and abuse. Hamas condemned what it called Israel's "bloody massacre" at the hospital and said civilians, patients, and displaced people were among the fatalities.
Before the latest attack, Al Shifa housed more than 7,000 patients and displaced people, according to the Gaza government. The Israeli military claimed that about 300 suspects were interrogated at the complex, and more than 160 detainees were brought to Israel "for further investigation."
Displaced Palestinians spoke to Al Jazeera about their harrowing experiences during the Israeli army's storming and siege of Al Shifa. Saleh Abu Sakran, who was in one of the buildings inside the medical complex, said, "The soldiers fired at the building where we are. They asked us to take off our clothes and go down to the hospital yard and sat us inside a residential building next to the hospital where we were interrogated."
One woman, a diabetic, recounted the difficulties she faced during her forced discharge from Al Shifa, saying, "I faced great difficulties in walking among the Israeli vehicles and bulldozers, and the children suffered greatly, and tanks fired at us. Gaza is not Gaza. All the places are destroyed. We went three days without eating. I felt like I was going to die."
Israel faced fierce criticism last November when troops first raided Al Shifa hospital, claiming to have uncovered tunnels allegedly used as command and control centers by Hamas. However, Hamas and medical staff denied that the hospital was used for military purposes or to shelter fighters.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim, who has previously served as a health minister, called the events at Al Shifa hospital a "war crime" and part of Israel's "war of genocide."
Meanwhile, Israeli attacks on the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza have killed at least 35 people, including women and children. The injured were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah after an Israeli air strike targeted a three-story family home in the Nuseirat camp late on Tuesday.
