The biggest functioning hospital in Gaza was raided by the Israeli forces on Thursday. Videos from the scene showed chaos, people shouting and gunfire in the dark hallways which were filled with dust and smoke. As per the Israeli military, the raid on the Nasser Hospital was “precise and limited”. They added that the raid was carried out on information that Hamas militants were using the hospital for hiding and had kept hostages there, along with the bodies of captives.
What has been Hamas’ response?
Responding to the Israeli military, Hamas said their claims were lies. Health authorities within the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave reported that Israel compelled the evacuation of numerous hospital personnel, patients, displaced individuals, and families of medical staff seeking refuge in the hospital. According to their account, approximately 2,000 Palestinians migrated to the southern border city of Rafah overnight, while others headed northward to Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.
The war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7 when Hamas’ terrorists killed 1,200 people in Israel and took 253 as hostages.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has since devastated tiny, crowded Gaza, killing 28,663 people, also mostly civilian, according to health authorities, and forcing nearly all its more than 2 million inhabitants from their homes. In a new operation, the Israeli military said it carried out an air strike that killed a Hamas commander who had participated in the October 7 attack. He had also held captive a female Israeli soldier who was executed by Hamas, the military said.
Israel accuses Hamas of regularly using hospitals, ambulances and other medical facilities for military purposes, and has aired footage taken by its troops that it says shows tunnels containing weapons below some hospitals. The Israeli military said it apprehended various suspects at Nasser Hospital and that its operations there were continuing. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Israel was lying about Nasser as it had about other hospitals
Video shows hospital chaos
Speaking about the hospital raid, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said “this sensitive operation was prepared with precision and is being conducted by IDF special forces who underwent specified training”. One objective of the operation was to ensure the hospital could continue treating Gazan patients and “we communicated this in a number of conversations we had with the hospital staff,” he said, adding there was no obligation to evacuate.
Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said the hospital would run out of fuel within the next 24 hours, threatening the lives of patients, including six in intensive care and three infants in the neonatal ward. Hagari said Israel had arranged the transfer of medical supplies and fuel to the hospital in coordination with international organizations.
Videos that Reuters verified on Thursday as having been filmed inside Nasser Hospital – though it could not check when – showed chaos and terror.
Men walked through corridors using phone lights, with plaster dust swirling around and debris lying about, at one point wheeling a bed through a damaged area. In one video, gunshots rang out and a doctor shouted: “Is there anyone still inside? There is gunfire, there is gunfire – heads down”. Another man in a video said the Israeli army had surrounded the hospital and nobody could get out.
Mohammad al Moghrabi, who had been sheltering in the compound, said some people who attempted to leave on Wednesday were shot at and so returned to the hospital. “This morning they said there was a safe passage, so we left, but it wasn’t safe. They approached us with a bulldozer and a tank, they insulted us and left us for four hours under the sun.”
(With Reuters inputs)