The Israeli army continues its operation on Thursday in Gaza’s main hospital, which has sparked serious international concern and criticism over the fate of patients and thousands of trapped civilians.
Breaking silence for the first time since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, the UN Security Council called for “humanitarian pauses and corridors” in the Gaza Strip.
The army accuses Palestinian Hamas of using al-Chifa hospital as a military base, the site representing a major objective in its war against the Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army launched this operation early Wednesday in this hospital before withdrawing its soldiers and tanks. A journalist working with AFP saw the army repositioning around the establishment late in the afternoon.
Bulldozers deployed
During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, the army announced that it was carrying out another operation at the al-Chifa hospital, the Ministry of Health of the Hamas administration reported Israeli bulldozers on this hospital complex where there are, according to the UN, around 2,300 people, including patients, caregivers and displaced persons “Israeli bulldozers destroyed parts of the southern entrance” of the hospital, the ministry announced in a brief statement in Arabic.
“Tonight we are carrying out a targeted operation in al-Chifa hospital. We continue to move forward,” Major General Yaron Finkelman, in charge of operations in the Gaza Strip, said on the Israeli army’s Telegram channel.
Early Wednesday, dozens of Israeli soldiers, some hooded, burst into the hospital, according to the journalist working with AFP on site.
No “green light” from Washington
On Wednesday evening, the Israeli army claimed to have found “munitions, weapons and military equipment” from Hamas in this hospital.
It has published images of what it claims are weapons, grenades and other equipment found in al-Chifa. The AFP was unable to independently verify these claims.
The Israeli army “found neither weapons nor military equipment” in the al-Chifa hospital, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, which assures that it “does not authorize” the presence of weapons in its establishments.
The raid on al-Chifa hospital on Wednesday sparked international condemnation and urgent calls to protect Palestinian civilians. Washington did not “give the green light to operations around al-Chifa hospital,” said the spokesperson for the National Security Council. “We have always been very clear with our Israeli partners on the importance of minimizing civilian casualties,” John Kirby said.
The day before, he had corroborated the Israeli ally’s assertions regarding the use of hospitals in Gaza for military purposes, including al-Chifa, declarations qualified by Hamas as a “green light” for Israel to “commit new massacres.”
Macron’s conviction
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned “with the greatest firmness” the bombing of civilian infrastructure. Shortly before, the Quai d’Orsay expressed “its very serious concern”, believing that the Palestinian population did not “have to pay for the crimes of Hamas”.
For its part, Qatar, a key mediator in the negotiations on the release of hostages in the hands of Hamas, called for “an international investigation” into the Israeli raids on hospitals in Gaza, calling the operation in the al-Chifa establishment of a “war crime”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday described Israel as a “terrorist state”, denouncing the cost in human life of Israeli bombings of the Gaza Strip.