Israel renewed its operation at Gaza's largest hospital Thursday, targeting what it maintains is a Hamas command centre concealed in a complex sheltering more than 2,000 civilians. "Tonight we conducted a targeted operation into Shifa hospital. We continue to move forward," Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of Israeli military operations in Gaza, said in a social media post. Gaza's health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said Thursday that Israeli bulldozers had "destroyed parts of the southern entrance" of the hospital.

Both Israel and its top ally the United States say Hamas have a command centre below the Al-Shifa complex, which has become a focal point in the 40-day-old war. The Palestinian militant group and directors at the hospital have denied the charge. Before Israeli forces first stormed the hospital complex on Wednesday, UN agencies estimated that 2,300 patients, staff and displaced civilians were sheltering at Al-Shifa.

 "The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns," UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said. "Hospitals are not battlegrounds." But Israel's army claimed the initial raid had uncovered military equipment, weapons and what spokesman Daniel Hagari described as "an operational headquarters with comms equipment."

 A journalist in contact with a foreign news agency, trapped inside Al-Shifa, said that Israeli soldiers, some wearing face masks, shot in the air and ordered young men to surrender when they first burst into the facility. About 1,000 male Palestinians, hands above their heads, were in the courtyard, some of them stripped naked by Israeli soldiers checking them for weapons or explosives, the journalist said.

US President Joe Biden on Thursday said he had told Israel to be "incredibly careful" in the Al-Shifa operation, but insisted Hamas had placed its "headquarters, weapons, material" at the hospital. Witnesses have described conditions inside the hospital as horrific, with medical procedures performed without anaesthetic, families with scant food or water living in corridors, and the stench of decomposing corpses filling the air.

 
Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)