Israeli tanks arrived at the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa on Monday as IDF soldiers stormed a local children’s hospital that has become a terrorist den where hostages are believed to have been kept.
At least 650 patients were reportedly trapped inside Al Shifa as Hamas terrorists and Israeli forces opened fire around it, with Israel saying the medical facility was used to hide a Hamas command post in a spider web of tunnels beneath it, making it its No. 1 target. 1 for Israel as they move to control northern Gaza.
But President Biden, a staunch defender of Israel’s war on Hamas, said on Monday, “Hospitals must be protected” – even as a US official confirmed that a terrorist command “node” was under the hospital and had used fuel intended to help. patient. Hamas has denied having its main war room under the site.
“My hope and expectation is that there will be less disruptive action,” Biden added to war correspondents that Israel was reeling around Al Shifa – highlighting what another White House official called a “very difficult” situation navigating the resolve of its allies and the ferocity of network tactics that speechless.
The Israel Defense Forces said they were also keeping an eye on the city’s Rantisi Hospital, which treated children before the war broke out and had to be evacuated as the IDF targeted cowardly terrorists it said were hiding inside.
“Under the hospital, in the basement, we found the Hamas command and control center, suicide vests, grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, explosive devices, RPGs and other weapons, computers, money, etc,” said IDF Rear Admr. spokesman Daniel Hagari at a press conference Monday, according to the Times of Israel.
Doctors operated on an injured Palestinian man even after the power was cut off at Al Quds Hospital in Gaza City. Anadolu via Getty Images
“We also found signs that Hamas is holding hostages here,” he said, adding that Israel had intelligence supporting the claim but warned, “This is under our investigation.
“Hamas is hiding in the hospital,” Hagari said. “Today, we will reveal this to the world.”
Hamas leaders today claimed that all hospitals in northern Gaza have now stopped operating due to fuel shortages and deadly fighting around them.
Hundreds of Palestinian refugees marched out of northern Gaza as fighting intensified between Israel and Hamas.IDF
At Gaza City’s second largest medical facility, Al Quds Hospital, “about 21 terrorists” were killed when they “buried themselves” in a crowd of civilians at the hospital’s entrance,” the Israel Defense Forces said Monday.
The IDF released a video escorting a suspected Hamas terrorist with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher outside a hospital.
As for Al Shifa, “The tank is in front of the hospital,” said Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati, a surgeon there. “We are under full blockade.
“Only hospital facilities, hospital patients, doctors and other civilians stay in the hospital,” he claimed. “Someone has to stop this.”
Patients lined up in the hallway of Nasser Hospital, one of the Palestinian medical sites waiting for an evacuation route to be prepared.dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images A refugee cooks food at Al Shifa Hospital shortly before the shooting at the weekend. AFP via Getty Images
Biden said negotiations were still ongoing to establish a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with Qatar acting as a mediator to also help free the nearly 240 hostages in Gaza.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller criticized Hamas for continuing to operate in hospitals.
“We don’t want to see civilians caught up in counter-attacks. We want to see Hamas vacate the hospitals it uses [as a] post instructions immediately,” Miller said. “We want to see everyone calling on Israel to take steps to protect hospitals and calling on Hamas to vacate hospitals and stop using civilians as human shields.
“We want to see the public sheltered in the hospital, the public being treated in the hospital, including babies in the hospital, protected. Civilians or hospitals or legitimate public infrastructure, they should be protected.
Israel released footage of a suspected Hamas operative carrying an RPG launcher outside Al Quds Hospital.
“At the same time, I would say Hamas continues to use the hospital as a location for its command post,” said a State Department representative. “So this – we’re talking about a difficult issue. This is a very difficult issue.”
After conflict erupted outside Al Shifa over the weekend, the hospital lost power, killing three newborns and threatening the well-being of other babies in incubators, staff there said.
The World Health Organization estimates that along with patients, between 200 and 500 health care workers are still in hospitals, as well as about 1,500 displaced Palestinians.
Mokhallalati said the situation worsened on Monday.
Al Quds Hospital said the evacuation convoy had to turn back after fighting in the area.via REUTERS
“We barely survived,” he said. “We tell everyone, the hospital is no longer a safe place to treat patients. We are harming patients by keeping them here.”
Bodies are lining the hospital grounds after the refrigerator truck keeping them cold ran out of fuel, the Guardian said.
The bodies were covered with colorful blankets, as the white sheets used to wrap bodies had been used up in the hospital.
Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry claims Israel has snipers and drones around the hospital, making it impossible for medics and patients to move around the building.
“We are surrounded and in a circle of death,” said a health ministry representative.
But Israel said Sunday that it had agreed to establish an evacuation route for patients and refugees fleeing Al Shifa, as well as Rantisi and Nasser hospitals.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said “100 or so” people had been evacuated from Al Shifa on Sunday, and after protests over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, suggested he would use former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair as “humanitarian coordinator” for the Palestinian territories.
People search through the rubble of a destroyed road in the Khan Yunis section of Gaza.Getty Images
Blair, who worked as the Middle East peace envoy for the United Nations between 2007 and 2015, has been vocal about stepping up to help in Gaza.
Israeli officials said offers to move babies from the Al Shifa neonatal ward and send emergency fuel to the hospital had been rejected by Hamas.
Ashraf al-Qidra, a representative of Hama’s health ministry, refuted at least part of Israel’s claims, saying that the 300 liters of fuel offered would not be enough to generate energy for more than an hour.
Al Quds Hospital also found itself inoperable and surrounded by violence.
The Palestinian Red Crescent, which runs the hospital, said a convoy sent to help patients and staff evacuate on Monday had to be turned back during Israeli bombardment of the area and heavy gunfire between the IDF and terrorists.
The Israeli army said in a statement, “RPG fire and small arms fire were directed at soldiers from the direction of Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.
IDF forces seize Hamas weapons in Quds University building.IDF
“The shooting was carried out by a terrorist squad that had embedded itself in a crowd of civilians at the entrance of the hospital.”
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that it was clear terrorists were housed in Gaza City medical facilities.
“You can see even from open source reports that Hamas uses hospitals, along with many other public facilities, for command and control, to store weapons, to house its fighters,” Sullivan said on CNN’s State of the Union. .”
“Without going into this particular hospital or that particular claim, this is Hamas’ track record, both historically and in this conflict,” he said.
Netanyahu touted the IDF’s progress on Monday, saying Israel will not stop until Hamas is eliminated, calling it a “war to the end.
“This is not an ‘operation’ nor a ’round’ but a war to the end. It is important to me that you know this. These are not words, but from the heart and mind. If we don’t solve it, it will come back,” Netanyahu said while visiting soldiers of Israel’s Caracal Battalion.
The IDF also discovered an underground tunnel shaft in Beit Hanoun. IDF
Although Netanyahu estimated that the ground invasion could last more than a year, the end may come sooner than expected, as Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, claimed that Hamas had “lost control” of Gaza.
“No power of Hamas is capable of stopping the IDF. The IDF is advancing at every point,” Gallant told the Times of Israel.
“The terrorists fled to the south. Civilians loot Hamas base. They don’t trust the government,” he added.
The Israeli military said on Monday it had killed several more top Hamas leaders, according to CNN.
Allegedly killed were Yaqoub Ashour, who Israel said was the head of the anti-tank unit in the Khan Younis brigade; Muhammad Khamis Dababesh, who previously served as the head of intelligence for Hamas’s armed wing but now works in its political ranks, and another high-ranking member of Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades.
Additional reporting by Josh Christenson and Steven Nelson in DC and Wire post
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
