©Reuters. Palestinian patients rest as they arrive in Rafah after being evacuated from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis due to the Israeli ground operation, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 15, 2024 REUTERS
By James Mackenzie and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/DOHA (Reuters) – Israeli forces said on Thursday they stormed Gaza’s largest functioning hospital as footage showed chaos, shouting and gunfire in dark corridors filled with dust and smoke.
The Israeli military called the raid on Nasser Hospital “precise and limited” and said it was based on information that Hamas militants were hiding and had held hostages at the facility, with some prisoners’ bodies possibly there.
Hamas called them lies.
Health authorities in the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave said Israel had forced dozens of staff, patients, displaced people and families of refugee medical staff out of the hospital. About 2,000 Palestinians arrived overnight in the southern border town of Rafah, while others pushed north towards Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, they said.
The war began on October 7, when Hamas sent fighters into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 253 hostages by Israeli counts.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has since devastated tiny, crowded Gaza, killing 28,663 people, including mostly civilians, according to health authorities, and forcing nearly all of its more than 2 million inhabitants to flee their homes.
In a new operation, the Israeli army said it carried out an airstrike that killed a Hamas commander who participated in the October 7 attack. He had also held captive an Israeli female soldier who was executed by Hamas, the military said.
Separately, health officials said an Israeli attack killed three Palestinians in a car in Gaza City. Their identities were not immediately clear.
The Israeli army said one soldier was killed in fighting in southern Gaza, bringing the total casualties since the start of ground incursions from October 20 to 235.
The charity Medicins San Frontieres said Israel shelled the Nasser hospital in the early hours, despite telling medical staff and patients they could stay.
“Our medical staff had to flee the hospital, leaving patients behind,” it said on social media platform X, adding that a member of its staff was arrested at an Israeli checkpoint set up to screen those leaving the compound.
The clashes at the hospital come as Israel faces growing international pressure to show restraint after vowing to bring its offensive to Rafah, the last relatively safe place in Gaza.
The attacks that destroyed most of Gaza’s medical facilities have caused particular concern, including Israeli raids on hospitals in other cities, shelling near hospitals and attacks on ambulances.
As massive bombings destroyed residential areas and forced most people to abandon their homes, hospitals quickly became the focal point for displaced people seeking refuge around buildings they deemed safer.
Israel accuses Hamas of regularly using hospitals, ambulances and other medical facilities for military purposes, and has released footage taken by its troops apparently showing tunnels containing weapons under some hospitals.
The Israeli army said it had arrested several suspects at Nasser Hospital and that its operations were continuing.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Israel was lying about Nasser as it had done with other hospitals
THE VIDEO SHOWS THE HOSPITAL CHAOS
Speaking about the raid on the hospital, Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that “this sensitive operation was precisely prepared and is conducted by IDF special forces who have undergone specific training.”
One of the objectives of the operation was to ensure that the hospital could continue to treat patients in Gaza and “we communicated this in a series of conversations we had with hospital staff,” he said, adding that there was no evacuation obligation.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said the hospital would run out of fuel within the next 24 hours, putting the lives of patients, including six in intensive care and three newborns in the neonatal ward, at risk.
Hagari said Israel organized the transfer of medical supplies and fuel to the hospital in coordination with international organizations.
Videos that Reuters verified on Thursday were shot inside the Nasser hospital – although it could not verify when – showed chaos and terror.
The men walked through the corridors using telephone lights, with plaster dust swirling and debris strewn about, at one point pushing a bed through a damaged area.
In one video, shots were heard and a doctor shouted: “Is there anyone still inside? There are shots, there are shots – heads down.”
Another man in a video said the Israeli army had surrounded the hospital and no one could get out.
Mohammad al Moghrabi, who had taken refuge in the compound, said some people who tried to leave on Wednesday were shot and then taken back to hospital.
“This morning they said there was a safe passage, so we left, but it wasn’t safe. They approached with a bulldozer and a tank, insulted us and left us for four hours under the sun.”