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Israel says 170 people have been killed and another 800 captured in nearly week-long clashes with Hamas militants at Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital, one of the war's biggest battles in the Palestinian enclave. .
The Israeli military assault on the hospital, once Gaza's largest medical facility, began early last week, and a brigade of special forces and tanks quickly surrounded the hospital, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Israeli officials say 170 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants have been killed, while the Israel Defense Forces say 500 people have been arrested, including 800 people detained, including senior field commanders from both groups. announced that it included extremists. Weapons, millions of dollars and Jordanian dinars were also reportedly seized. Three Israeli soldiers were killed.
Thousands of Palestinians who had taken refuge in al-Shifa were forced to flee through a checkpoint to a shelter south of the hospital. Patients and medical staff were being moved to a dedicated wing of the vast complex as Israeli special forces continued a room-to-room search, with video footage showing Israeli gunfire and the use of small drones and bulldozers. It was reflected.
„This is the largest terrorist grouping operation that we have arrested since the beginning of the war,“ said Daniel Hagari, chief spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces.
Large-scale encounters between the IDF and Palestinian armed groups are rare in the country. Five and a half months of conflict Since Hamas began cross-border raids into Israel on October 7, Hamas fighters have resorted to operating in small cells and deploying guerrilla tactics because they cannot match the firepower of the IDF. I rely on it.
Early Sunday morning, the Israel Defense Forces also launched a new offensive against what it called „terrorist infrastructure“ in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza's largest city. . . And the operatives.” The city's Al-Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals, which were attacked by Israeli Defense Forces last month, are under siege, according to reports from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and local media.
Israel drew widespread international condemnation during that period. First operation in Al Shifa in November. Some critics argued that the tunnels beneath the hospital destroyed in the first operation did not fit the IDF's claim to be a sprawling command and control center.
The IDF has since withdrawn from much of northern Gaza, including al-Shifa, and is now conducting targeted raids with small forces in the area. A senior Israeli military official claimed that the withdrawal was aimed at encouraging increased activity by Hamas operatives and making it easier for the IDF to target them.
But critics point to the ongoing al-Shifa assault and the large number of militants still active in northern Gaza as a sign of Hamas' continued resilience and Israel's lack of postwar planning.
For many in the international community, the continued targeting of al-Shifa is exacerbating the misery of civilians in Gaza, where more than 32,000 people have been killed, according to health officials in Hamas-controlled areas. ing.
Doha-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement last week that „what the Zionist occupation forces are doing at the al-Shifa hospital complex shows that this enemy is fighting to restore life to the Gaza Strip. „This proves that they are here, and they are trying to destroy everything.“ Components of Human Life.”
According to Israeli statistics, the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel that triggered the war killed about 1,200 people, and more than 130 hostages are still being held by the group.
During a visit to the Egypt-Gaza border crossing in Rafah on Saturday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories a „moral outrage“ and demanded an „ironclad commitment“ from Israel to increase aid flows. did.
„Here we see all the heartbreak and heartlessness. On one side of the gate is a long line of stranded relief trucks, and on the other side is the long shadow of hunger,“ Guterres said. .
Israel has pledged to do more to facilitate the supply of food, shelter and medical supplies, particularly to northern Gaza, which aid groups say is on the brink of starvation, but so far supplies have been limited. The increase has remained at a modest rate.
Operation Al Shifa is expected to last several days, with Israel's top commander vowing on Friday that it would only end „when the last terrorist, alive or dead, is in our hands.“