©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises during an Israeli raid on Al Shifa hospital and the surrounding area, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas, in Gaza city, March 21, 2024. REUTERS/ Dawoud Abu Alkas/file Photo
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By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Bassam and Masoud
CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) – Clashes raged on Saturday around Gaza’s main hospital, where Israel says it has killed more than 170 gunmen so far in a large raid, which the Palestinian Health Ministry said also left five dead. patients.
The armed wing of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters were engaged in clashes with Israeli forces outside and around Gaza City’s Al Shifa hospital, although Hamas denies any presence inside the facility.
Israeli troops stormed Al Shifa in the early hours of Monday morning and combed the vast complex, which the military says is connected to a network of tunnels used as a base for Hamas and other Palestinian fighters.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said five injured Palestinians “besieged” inside Al Shifa died after being denied adequate care, water and food over the past six days, and that the conditions of other injured patients were worsening.
The Israeli army, which lost two soldiers in combat at the hospital, says it is preventing harm to civilians, patients and medical staff and providing them with food, water and adequate access to healthcare.
Reuters was unable to access the hospital and verify either account.
Al Shifa, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip before the war, is today one of the few even partially operational health facilities in the north of the territory and also hosted displaced civilians.
Residents living nearby said Israeli forces blew up dozens of houses and apartments in the streets around the hospital and razed the streets. They said a nearby private medical center, Al-Helo Hospital, was also hit by the army.
The Hamas-run Gaza government’s press office said Israeli tanks hit several buildings at Al Shifa hospital and set fire to a surgery ward, and that around 240 patients and their companions, as well as dozens of health workers, were arrested.
The Israeli military said that more than 350 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants had been detained at the hospital so far and that a total of 800 people were being interrogated.
HAMAS DENIALS ARMED PRESENCE
In recent days, Hamas spokespersons have stated that the dead announced in previous Israeli statements were not fighters but patients and displaced persons.
Israel faced heavy criticism last November when troops first raided the hospital. Troops discovered tunnels there, which they said had been used as command and control centers by Hamas.
Israeli forces shot and killed Palestinian pharmacologist Mohammad Al-Nono outside Al Shifa hospital after they ordered him to evacuate, along with some colleagues, his family said. A family member said they learned of his death from other doctors. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
Nono is the brother of Taher Al-Nono, who serves as a media adviser to Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh.
Hamas media reported that elsewhere in Gaza city, seven Palestinians were killed on Saturday and several others injured at the Kuwait roundabout as they waited for aid trucks.
“We survived death, we were shot, there are many martyrs, there are many wounded, we almost died to feed our children,” said Alaa al-Khoudary, a Gaza City resident who had just returned from the war . Kuwait roundabout with an aid grant.
In Rafah, where more than a million people have taken refuge, health officials said an Israeli airstrike on a house killed eight people and wounded others.
The Israeli army said it killed at least 20 gunmen in airstrikes and close quarters fighting in central Gaza and the southern area of Khan Younis.
According to health authorities in the Hamas-ruled enclave, more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The war erupted when Hamas fighters swept into southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli counts.