The Israeli army launched Monday an operation around Gaza’s largest hospital Al-Shifa, with witnesses reporting air strikes on the devastated neighborhood where it is located.
Israeli soldiers “are currently conducting a precise operation in the area of the Shifa hospital”, a statement from the military said.
“The operation is based on intelligence information indicating the use of the hospital by senior Hamas terrorists,” the army claimed.
Witnesses in Gaza City told international news agency they saw tanks surround the hospital site.
The Israeli army also carried out a November operation in Al-Shifa, sparking an international outcry.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the war have sought shelter in the complex, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of running military operations from hospitals and other medical centers, claims the militant group, doctors at the hospitals, and international rights groups have repeatedly denied.
The Hamas government media office in Gaza condemned the operation, saying that “the storming of the Al-Shifa medical complex with tanks, drones, and weapons, and shooting inside it, is a war crime”.
The Israeli army has carried out several operations on medical facilities around the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
According to the UN, 155 health facilities in the Gaza Strip have been damaged since the war began.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has carried out a relentless bombardment and ground offensive that has killed at least 31,645 people, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the territory.
According to the Israeli military, troops “were instructed on the importance of operating cautiously, as well as on the measures to be taken to avoid harm to the patients, civilians, medical staff, and medical equipment”.
The statement also said Arabic speakers had been deployed in order to “facilitate dialogue with the patients remaining in the hospital”.
It added: “There is no obligation for the patients and medical staff to evacuate.”
Following its November 15 operation on Al-Shifa, the Israeli military alleged it had found weapons and other military equipment hidden in the site – claims Hamas has denied.
