Israeli forces raided al-Shifa Hospital in the north, while continuing bombardments in the south and central regions.
A wounded Palestinian woman covered in dust and blood hugs an injured girl at a hospital following the Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza [Belal Khaled/AFP]
Published On 16 Nov 202316 Nov 2023
Two and a half weeks after sending tanks and ground troops into northern Gaza, Israeli forces have raided al-Shifa Hospital, where thousands of patients and displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
Mohammed Zaqout, the director of hospitals in Gaza, said Israeli tanks were inside the medical compound on Wednesday and that soldiers had entered buildings, including the emergency and surgery departments.
The Israeli army claims that Hamas uses hospitals as cover for its fighters and has set up a command centre in and beneath al-Shifa, the largest medical facility in the besieged territory. Both Hamas and hospital staff deny the Israeli allegations.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military’s attention is also focused on parts of southern Gaza, said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Khan Younis. “In the last couple of hours, three residential houses in Khan Younis city have been bombarded,” he said late on Wednesday.
While confrontations between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters rage in eastern Gaza, Israeli soldiers are trying to move “deeper” into the south of the Strip, he said.
This is “terrifying people”, Abu Azzoum added, many of whom have fled their homes in the north and central areas of Gaza for what Israel said were safer regions in the south.
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Gaza’s Ministry of Health has been struggling to update casualty figures as Israeli forces have increasingly targeted hospitals and allied services in the besieged enclave.
On Wednesday, at least 14 people were killed and dozens of others injured in three major strikes. Two of the strikes were on homes in Khan Younis, and the third was on a home in the central Gaza region. At least three people were killed in an attack on Salhi residential towers in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
More than 11,200 Palestinians — two-thirds of them women and minors — have been killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7. About 2,700 people have been reported missing.
Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. [Fatima Shbair/AP Photo]
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https://991248f9f4965c681f93b16fb7d5152a.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.htmlLast week, Barbara Leaf, assistant US secretary of state for near eastern affairs, told a House panel that the number of those killed in Gaza is likely ‘higher than is being cited’. [Nasser Nasser/AP Photo]Wounded Palestinians are brought to a hospital in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza. [Hatem Moussa/AP Photo]The World Health Organization says 22 of 36 hospitals in Gaza are nonfunctional ‘due to lack of fuel, damage, attacks and insecurity’. [Fatima Shbair/AP Photo]Palestinians look at the destruction in the aftermath of Israeli strikes on Rafah, southern Gaza. [Hatem Ali/ AP Photo]A picture released on November 15, 2023 reportedly shows Israeli soldiers carrying out operations inside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Omar Zaqout, an emergency room employee at al-Shifa, told Al Jazeera Israeli soldiers ‘detained and brutally assaulted some of the men who were taking refuge at the hospital’. [Handout/Israel army via AFP]
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https://991248f9f4965c681f93b16fb7d5152a.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.htmlIn an image taken from a video released by the Israeli army on Wednesday, Israeli soldiers walk in the compound of al-Shifa Hospital. [Handout/Israel army via AP]A view of makeshift shelters and tents in Khan Younis, set up by internally displaced Palestinians who fled the Israeli bombardment of northern Gaza. [Mahmud Hams/AFP]Shortages of food and water have been worsening, even in better-supplied areas in southern Gaza. [Fatima Shbair/AP Photo]The first truck delivering fuel since the war began arrived in Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Wednesday. However, it is ‘not at all enough’, the UN said, adding that use of the fuel has been ‘restricted’ by Israel. [Said Khatib/AFP]Palestinians and dual nationals fleeing from Gaza on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip. [AFP]
