Israeli forces stormed a hospital on Friday in Khan Younes, a town in the south of the Gaza Strip that they have been besieging for several weeks, announced the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS), which manages the establishment.
“The (Israeli) occupying forces stormed Al-Amal hospital and began searching it,” and “we are having difficulty communicating with our teams inside,” the PRCS said in a statement. communicated.
The Israeli army confirmed to AFP that its troops had launched a search operation in the hospital after collecting "intelligence indicating that Hamas was carrying out terrorist activities" in the complex.
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Al-Amal hospital found itself in the middle of fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters, in power in Gaza since 2007. On Thursday, the PRCS reported “intense bombings” and “heavy gunfire heavy” around the establishment.
The medical aid NGO has been calling for several days for him to be protected and to be able to continue to get supplies, highlighting the shortages of oxygen, medicines and fuel which powers the generators providing him with electricity.
More than 200 people still in the hospital
Earlier this week, the Red Crescent said that 8,000 people who had taken refuge in Al-Amal and its nearby local headquarters had been evacuated.
A video released by PRCS shows a doctor pushing a bed on wheels carrying an elderly woman down a damaged street.
Around 40 displaced people, 80 patients and 100 employees remained in the hospital after the evacuation, the PRCS said on Monday.
Although they theoretically benefit from special protection under the laws of war, hospitals have been regularly targeted since the war began in October.
There are no longer any hospitals operating normally in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said on Wednesday, and just over a third continue to operate slowly.
The Hamas attack in Israel on October 7 resulted in the deaths of more than 1,160 people, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
Around 250 people were also kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
According to Israel, 132 hostages are still held there, of whom 29 are believed to have died.
In retaliation, Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip which left at least 27,947 people dead, the vast majority of them women, children and adolescents, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.