RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces stormed the main hospital in southern Gaza on Thursday, hours after Israeli hearth killed a affected person and wounded six others contained in the advanced. The Israeli military stated it was a restricted operation searching for the stays of hostages taken by Hamas.
The raid got here a day after the military sought to evacuate hundreds of displaced individuals who had taken shelter at Nasser Hospital within the metropolis of Khan Younis, the main target of Israel’s offensive in opposition to Hamas in current weeks. The warfare exhibits no signal of ending, and the danger of a broader battle is rising as Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah step up assaults after a very lethal change on Wednesday.
The army stated it had “credible intelligence” that Hamas had held hostages on the hospital and that the stays of hostages would possibly nonetheless be inside. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief army spokesperson, stated forces had been conducting a “precise and limited” operation there and wouldn’t forcibly evacuate medics or sufferers. Israel accuses Hamas of utilizing hospitals and different civilian constructions to defend its fighters.
A launched hostage informed The Associated Press final month that she and over two dozen different captives had been held in Nasser Hospital. International legislation prohibits the concentrating on of medical amenities, however they’ll lose these protections if they’re used for army functions.
Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra stated Israel had launched a “massive incursion” with heavy taking pictures that wounded displaced folks nonetheless sheltering there. He stated the army had ordered medics to maneuver all sufferers into an older constructing that was not correctly geared up for his or her remedy.
“Many cannot evacuate, such as those with lower limb amputations, severe burns, or the elderly,” he stated in an interview with the Al Jazeera community.
Separately, Israel launched airstrikes in southern Lebanon for a second day after killing 10 civilians and three Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday in response to a rocket assault that killed an Israeli soldier and wounded a number of others.
It was the deadliest change of fireside alongside the border because the begin of the Israel-Hamas warfare. Israel and Hezbollah — an ally of Hamas — have traded hearth every day, elevating the dangers of a broader battle.
Hezbollah has not claimed Wednesday’s rocket assault. But Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, a senior member of the group, stated it’s “prepared for the possibility of expanding the war” and would meet “escalation with escalation, displacement with displacement, and destruction with destruction.”
Negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza in the meantime seem to have stalled, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to proceed the offensive till Hamas is destroyed and scores of hostages taken throughout the Oct. 7 assault that sparked the warfare are returned.
SCENES OF PANIC IN A HOSPITAL
Nasser Hospital has been the most recent focus of operations which have gutted Gaza’s well being sector because it struggles to deal with scores of sufferers wounded in each day bombardments.
Video of the aftermath of the strike in a single day confirmed medics scrambling to wheel sufferers on stretchers by means of a hall stuffed with smoke or mud. A medic used a cellphone flashlight to light up a darkened room the place a wounded man screamed out in ache as gunfire echoed exterior. The Associated Press couldn’t authenticate the movies however they had been per its reporting.
Dr. Khaled Alserr, one of many remaining surgeons at Nasser Hospital, informed the AP that the seven sufferers hit early Thursday had been already being handled for previous wounds.
“The situation is escalating every hour and every minute,” he stated.
The army had ordered the evacuation of Nasser Hospital and surrounding areas final month. But as with different well being amenities, medics stated sufferers had been unable to soundly go away or be relocated, and hundreds of individuals displaced by preventing elsewhere remained there.
“People have been forced into an impossible situation,” stated Lisa Macheiner of the help group Doctors Without Borders.
“Stay at Nasser Hospital against the Israeli military’s orders and become a potential target, or exit the compound into an apocalyptic landscape where bombings and evacuation orders are a part of daily life.”
The worldwide support group, additionally recognized by its French language acronym MSF, stated its employees needed to flee the hospital on Thursday, leaving sufferers behind, and that one staffer was detained at an Israeli checkpoint simply exterior the ability.
NO END IN SIGHT TO THE MONTHSLONG WAR
The warfare started when Hamas militants burst by means of Israel’s formidable defenses on Oct. 7 and rampaged by means of a number of communities, killing some 1,200 folks and taking one other 250 hostage. More than 100 of the captives had been freed throughout a cease-fire final 12 months in change for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Around 130 captives stay in Gaza, a fourth of whom are believed to be lifeless. Netanyahu has come below intense stress from households of the hostages and the broader public to make a deal to safe their freedom, however his far-right coalition companions might deliver down his authorities if he’s seen as being too mushy on Hamas.
Israel responded to the Oct. 7 assault by launching one of many deadliest and most harmful army campaigns in current historical past. Over 28,000 Palestinians have been killed, 80% of the inhabitants have fled their properties and 1 / 4 are ravenous amid a worsening humanitarian disaster. Large areas in northern Gaza, the primary goal of the offensive, have been utterly destroyed
Hamas has continued to assault Israeli forces in all elements of Gaza, and says it is not going to launch all of the remaining captives till Israel ends its offensive and withdraws. Hamas can be demanding the discharge of numerous Palestinian prisoners, together with high militants.
Netanyahu has rejected these calls for, calling them “delusional.” He says Israel will quickly develop its offensive into Gaza’s southernmost metropolis of Rafah, on the Egyptian border. Over half of Gaza’s inhabitants of 2.3 million has sought refuge in Rafah after fleeing preventing elsewhere within the coastal enclave.
At least 28,663 Palestinians have been killed because the warfare started, largely ladies and kids, in line with Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. Over 68,000 folks have been wounded within the warfare.
Airstrikes late Wednesday in central Gaza killed no less than 11 folks, together with 4 kids and 5 ladies, in line with hospital data. Relatives gathered round our bodies wrapped in white shrouds exterior Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital within the central city of Deir al-Balah earlier than the stays had been positioned in a truck to be taken for burial.
One man struggled to let go, mendacity down and holding one of many our bodies on the truck as he wept.
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Mroue reported from Beirut and Lidman from Jerusalem. Associated Press author Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
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Find extra of AP’s protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
