After extensive attacks around the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the Israeli army stormed the premises of the medical complex early Wednesday morning.
Dr. Ahmad Mikhallalati, head of the burn unit at Al-Shifa Hospital, said in a statement to the media carried by Al Jazeera that Israeli tanks and bulldozers were now inside the compound.
The Israeli army previously announced that it had launched a military operation in a “certain part” of the Al-Shifa compound.
The announcement came after Gaza’s Ministry of Health said the army had officially notified the administration of the medical complex that it would carry out a raid on Tuesday night.
Dr. Muhammad Zaqout, director general of hospitals in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that “not a single bullet was fired from the hospital during the occupation forces’ attack on the compound.”
“The occupying forces stormed the surgery and emergency building in the Al-Shifa complex, entered the emergency department and are now searching the basement of the hospital,” Zaqout said.
He emphasized that the Israeli army found no evidence that members of the Palestinian resistance were hiding in or around the hospital, contrary to their claims before the raid on the compound.
The Palestinian group Hamas holds Israel and US President Joe Biden fully responsible for the consequences of the attack on Al-Shifa and the safety of medical personnel and displaced people who took refuge there.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al-Kaila also stated that “the Israeli occupation is responsible for the lives of medical staff, patients and displaced people in the Al-Shifa compound.”
Al-Kaila warned of “catastrophic consequences for patients and medical staff if the occupation army attacks the Al-Shifa medical complex.”
Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the government’s media office in Gaza, called the raid on the hospital a “war crime.”
“The occupation will not prove that Al-Shifa hospital is the headquarters of the resistance leadership,” Al-Thawabta told Al-Jazeera, adding that “the occupation is expected to bring weapons into the hospital, arrange them in a certain way and then take photographs.”, Anadolu Agency reports.
