{"id":17120,"date":"2024-03-19T12:48:09","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T12:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/19\/israeli-military-launches-new-raid-at-gazas-largest-hospital-once-the-epicenter-of-the-fighting\/"},"modified":"2024-03-19T12:48:09","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T12:48:09","slug":"israeli-military-launches-new-raid-at-gazas-largest-hospital-once-the-epicenter-of-the-fighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/19\/israeli-military-launches-new-raid-at-gazas-largest-hospital-once-the-epicenter-of-the-fighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli military launches new raid at Gaza\u2019s largest hospital, once the epicenter of the fighting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Israeli military launched an operation on Monday against Gaza\u2019s largest hospital facility, Al-Shifa, where thousands of people are sheltering. <\/p>\n

The IDF ordered residents and displaced persons near the sprawling medical complex in northern Gaza to withdraw to what it called a \u201chumanitarian zone\u201d further south. However, those warnings came after the hospital had already come under siege, according to one witness. <\/p>\n

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said about 30,000 people were inside Al-Shifa seeking refuge and that those attempting to leave were being targeted by snipers and fire from helicopters. Hamas accused Israel of striking targets \u201cwithout regard\u201d to the patients or medical staff inside \u2013 a claim echoed by people at the complex. <\/p>\n

Targeting hospitals in wartime is prohibited under international law, but those standards change if enemy combatants are using the facility to attack an enemy. <\/p>\n

The IDF said it would \u201cact in accordance with international law\u201d and had instructed troops on the importance of \u201coperating cautiously, as well as on the measures to be taken to avoid harm to the patients, civilians, medical staff, and medical equipment.\u201d <\/p>\n

Videos aired by Al Jazeera showed massive plumes of smoke from airstrikes in the vicinity of the hospital, with nearby streets covered in the dust and debris from bombed out buildings. In one video, people could be seen frantically going through the rubble to dig out the seeming lifeless body of one young victim. Another showed families running in terror after a deafening missile strike. <\/p>\n

Abdelhadi, the man sheltering at Al-Shifa, said the operation began \u201csuddenly\u201d at 2:38 a.m. local time. <\/p>\n

Abdelhadi said that Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers were \u201cdemolishing and excavating\u201d\ufeff<\/strong> inside the hospital grounds and Israeli forces used loudspeakers to order people to stay inside and moved toward the corridors. Those moving between hallways risked being hit, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe screams of women and children have not stopped. With every artillery shell that\u2019s fired, there\u2019s more screaming,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Shelling was still ongoing as of Monday afternoon, according to Abdelhadi. <\/p>\n

A doctor on the scene, Abdullah Mohammed, said on Monday afternoon that the Al-Shifa surgical building, which is crowded with young people, was on fire after being hit four times by Israeli missile strikes. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone inside this building has undergone major operations and cannot move from the place,\u201d Mohammed wrote on X, formerly Twitter. <\/p>\n

The World Health Organization (WHO) is \u201cterribly worried\u201d about the situation there, according to Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who said in a post on X on Monday that \u201chospitals should never be battlegrounds.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Al-Shifa briefly became the epicenter of the conflict <\/strong>earlier on in the war between Israel and Hamas. Israel accused Hamas of operating what it called a command center in tunnels beneath the hospital complex, a charge the group denied. In November, Israel carried out what it called a \u201cprecise and targeted\u201d operation in the complex, but the facility\u2019s main building was heavily damaged and effectively ceased to function, with doctors working by candlelight and wrapping premature babies in foil to keep them alive. Dozens of patients died due to a lack of electricity, according a report released in November. <\/p>\n

Palestinians have said the fighting around Al-Shifa demonstrates Israel\u2019s wanton disregard for civilian life in Gaza, while Israel points to it as an example of Hamas\u2019 use of civilians as human shields. <\/p>\n

During the first round of fighting at Al-Shifa in November, Israel urged Gaza\u2019s northern residents to head south to seek refuge. <\/p>\n

Those that remained now face a dire humanitarian crisis in which people in Gaza are starving to death due to the war and a lack of aid. Israeli officials have repeatedly said that issues in delivering aid were not down to Israel blocking trucks\u2019 access to Gaza. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe speed at which this man-made hunger and malnutrition crisis has ripped through Gaza is terrifying,\u201d said the executive director of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain. <\/p>\n

A report compiled by several governments and aid organizations released on Monday found that a famine in northern Gaza is \u201cimminent.\u201d <\/p>\n

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the findings showed that Gaza now has \u201cthe highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded\u2026 anywhere, anytime.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an entirely manmade disaster \u2014 and the report makes clear that it can be halted,\u201d Guterres told reporters. <\/p>\n

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But life is little better for Gazans who did flee south. The majority of them \u2013 about 1.4 million people \u2013 are now crammed into a sprawling tent city packed against the Egyptian border in Rafah, the only nominally safe space left in the embattled enclave, and fears there are mounting of an impending offensive. <\/p>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s office said Friday that he had approved plans for a ground incursion into Rafah, despite widespread international opposition. <\/p>\n

United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths warned last month that such an offensive could lead to \u201ca slaughter.\u201d Israel intends to move displaced Palestinians from Rafah to \u201chumanitarian enclaves\u201d in Gaza before any assault, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Israeli military launched an operation on Monday against Gaza\u2019s largest hospital facility, Al-Shifa, where thousands of people are sheltering. The IDF ordered residents and displaced persons near the sprawling medical complex in northern Gaza to withdraw to what it called a \u201chumanitarian zone\u201d further south. However, those warnings came after the hospital had already <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}