NNA – Israeli forces, some wearing facemasks and firing guns into the air, raided early Wednesday Gaza#39;s biggest hospital which was packed with thousands of Palestinian patients and displaced people, in the army#39;s battle against Hamas.
quot;All men 16 years and above, raise your hands,quot; a soldier shouted in accented Arabic through a loudspeaker, to those sheltering inside Al-Shifa hospital, which has become the centre of fierce urban combat for days.
quot;Exit the building towards the courtyard and surrender,quot; the soldier ordered, according to a journalist who visited the embattled hospital several days ago for interviews and was trapped inside because of the fighting outside.
About 1,000 male Palestinians, their hands above their heads, were soon led into the vast hospital courtyard, some of them stripped naked by Israeli soldiers checking them for weapons or explosives, the journalist told AFP.nbsp;
The army labelled the raid a quot;precise and targetedquot; operation against Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that launched the October 7 attacks and which Israel claims is running a command centre in tunnels beneath the clinic.
Israeli and Palestinian officials both reported the overnight military operations at Al-Shifa, the focal point of days of deadly fighting and nearby aerial bombardments.
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.nbsp;
As Israeli forces raced through the corridors, hundreds of young men emerged from different wards, including the maternity section, which was hit in a strike a few days ago, the journalist reported.
Soldiers were firing warning shots as they moved from room to room looking for Hamas militants, he said, adding that the troops were also searching women and children, some of whom were in tears.–AFP
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