Status: 15.11.2023, 04:45 a.m.
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Clashes have been going on for days near hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip. © Mohammed Talatene/dpa
The Israel Defense Forces suspect Hamas' command center in the largest clinic in the Gaza Strip. After days of fighting around the complex, the soldiers are now invading. The overview.
Gaza - Israeli forces have entered part of Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip. Based on intelligence, soldiers "carried out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specific area of Shifa Hospital," the army said on Telegram early Wednesday morning. "We call on all Hamas terrorists present in the hospital to surrender."
For days, there have been clashes between Israeli ground troops and Palestinian extremists near hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip. Employees of Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, reported continued shelling in the area. Israel suspects that the hospital complex is a Hamas command center. The latter denies this.
According to the army, the forces involved in the military operation at the Shifa hospital also included medical teams and Arabic-speaking people. They have undergone special training and are supposed to ensure that civilians used by Hamas as human shields are not harmed, the statement added.
According to media reports, the armed forces had warned the authorities in the Gaza Strip against the operation. The military contacted a Palestinian health official and informed him of the impending attack, a spokesman for the health ministry, which is controlled by the Islamist Hamas, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.
Army: Forced to Crack Down on Hamas in Hospitals
Earlier, Israel's military spokesman Daniel Hagari announced that the forces would also crack down on Hamas' alleged infrastructure in hospitals in the Gaza Strip. "Hamas' continued military use of Shifa Hospital means that it loses its special protection under international law," Hagari said. "We are forced to act carefully and precisely against Hamas' military infrastructure in the hospitals."
The U.S. also assumes that Hamas uses hospitals in the Gaza Strip for military purposes. National Security Council communications director John Kirby said, "Hamas and members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) are using some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including the Shifa clinic, and tunnels underneath them to conceal and advance their military operations and to hold hostages."
Netanyahu calls for support in the fight against Hamas
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again appealed for his country's support in the fight against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Netanyahu addressed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directly: "It is not Israel that is deliberately targeting civilians, but Hamas is beheading, burning and massacring civilians in the worst horror perpetrated on Jews since the Holocaust." He demanded: "The forces of civilization must support Israel in defeating the barbarism of Hamas." Earlier, Trudeau reportedly urged the Israeli government to "exercise maximum restraint" in its fight in the Gaza Strip and allow a humanitarian pause. He said: "The world is witnessing this killing of women, children and babies. This has to stop."
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UN Relief and Works Agency: Aid in Gaza impossible due to fuel shortage
Due to a lack of fuel, humanitarian assistance to more than two million people in the Gaza Strip could soon collapse, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). A fuel depot inside the Gaza Strip, which the agency last used, is now empty, said UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini. "It's simple. Without fuel, the humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip will come to an end. Many more people will suffer and probably die."
UN chief calls for ceasefire 'in the name of humanity'
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was "deeply concerned" about the situation in hospitals in the Gaza Strip. These recorded dramatic loss of life, Guterres announced. "In the name of humanity, the Secretary-General calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire," it said in a statement. Israel criticized Guterres for his role in the Gaza war. "Guterres does not deserve to be the head of the UN," said Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. He did not take a decisive enough stand against the terror of Hamas. "Guterres, like all free nations, should say loud and clear, 'Liberate Gaza from Hamas,'" Cohen said.
What will be important on Wednesday
French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu travels to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He wanted to hold talks about the situation in the Gaza Strip and the security situation in the region, he wrote on the news platform X, formerly Twitter, before his departure. He plans to visit the Gulf region and end his trip in Israel on Friday. It is the first visit by a French defense minister to Israel since 2000. Dpa