Israeli forces stormed Gaza's largest hospital Wednesday, targeting what they believe is a Hamas command center housed among thousands of ailing and sheltering civilians.
Military operations were taking place at Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital -- the focal point of days of deadly fighting and nearby aerial bombardments.
Youssef Abul Reesh, an official from the health ministry who is inside the hospital, told AFP he could see tanks inside the complex and "dozens of soldiers and commandos inside the emergency and reception buildings." The Israel Defense Forces described it as "a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area" of the facility.
After sharp warnings from the United States and others that Al-Shifa must be protected, Israel said the raid was being executed based on an operational necessity.
Estimates for the number of patients, staff, and displaced people inside the hospital complex range from the hundreds, to tens of thousands, with true number impossible to independently verify. The White House reiterated its concerns for their safety, shortly after the raid began.
"We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don't want to see a firefight in a hospital," a National Security Council spokesperson said.
The official added that there should not be a situation in which "innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get the medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire."
Stench of corpses
- Witnesses have described conditions inside the hospital as horrific, with medical procedures taking place without anesthetic, families with scant food or water living in corridors, and the stench of decomposing corpses filling the air. "There are bodies littered in the hospital complex and there is no longer electricity at the morgues," said hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya.
Anticipating a fierce backlash against the hospital raid, the Israel Defense Forces said it had provided evacuation routes for civilians and given authorities in Hamas-run Gaza 12 hours' notice that any military operation inside must cease.
Abul Reesh, from Gaza's health ministry, called on "the international community and the United Nations to intervene immediately and urgently to stop the Israeli storming operation." He urged both to protect what he said were "20,000 people inside the hospital including medical staff and 650 ailing people and thousands of injured people." - 'I was bleeding' - The situation in Gaza's other hospitals is also dire, with the UN saying 22 of 36 are not functional due to lack of generator fuel, damage, and combat.
"The 14 hospitals remaining open have barely enough supplies to sustain critical and life-saving surgeries and provide inpatient care, including intensive care," the WHO said. The UN "has warned that the evacuation of hospitals in the north, as demanded by the Israeli military, would be a 'death sentence' for some patients, because operational hospitals in the south cannot admit more patients," according to the humanitarian agency OCHA.
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