Israeli troops enter the medical complex from the south, reportedly destroying a wall and interrogating medical personnel.
Israeli forces have stormed Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital for a second day, entering the medical complex from the southern part.
“The situation at al-Shifa hospital is very dire indeed,” said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday morning.
The facility houses thousands of patients, medical staff and displaced Palestinians who witnesses say are not allowed to leave.
“Israeli bulldozers and tanks reportedly entered the hospital complex and damaged the wall of the facility. Doctors and other medical staff were also reportedly interrogated,” Abu Azzoum said.
Israeli tanks and troops entered the al-Shifa compound for the first time on Wednesday morning in a so-called “targeted” operation after days of surrounding and bombing the facility.
Israel claims al-Shifa is being used as a command center for Hamas, the group that rules Gaza, but has provided no evidence to support those claims.
Hamas denies the allegations and has called on the United Nations to send investigators to verify the truth.
“It is a civilian hospital. “There is no member of Hamas in Al-Shifa Hospital,” Mohammed Zaqout, the director general of Gaza Hospitals, told Al Jazeera. “There is no military activity in al-Shifa. Everything that happened happened around the hospital, but inside the hospital all the people are civilians.”
“Blindfolded and interrogated”
Reporting from Khan Younis, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said more than 24 hours after Israeli troops first raided the site, they had “provided no evidence” linking the hospital to Hamas.
“Unfortunately, this failure to confirm resulted in massive destruction at the hospital and renewed attacks on its buildings and redeployment of troops outside the hospital gates from all sides,” he added.
The special surgery building was damaged from the inside, Israeli soldiers blew up a warehouse of medicines and medical equipment at the hospital, and witnesses reported that “about 200 people were blindfolded and interrogated and taken to unknown areas,” Mahmoud reported.
“All this is happening under the heavy protection of airstrikes and tank shells around Al-Shifa Hospital and the Gaza Center.”
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, called the Israeli invasion of al-Shifa “the mother of all scandals” and questioned why the Israeli army said it had to occupy the hospitals “for days” to find evidence.
“In doing so, they endangered the lives of hospital patients [and] Hospital staff,” Barghouti told Al Jazeera from Ramallah.
Humanitarian pause
The United States has continued to push the Israeli narrative that al-Shifa is being used by Hamas as a “military headquarters,” but has denied giving Israel the green light to launch an incursion. President Joe Biden also called on Israel to be “incredibly careful” in its operation in al-Shifa.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council passed a resolution on Wednesday evening calling for “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza, but Israel rejected it.
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said the resolution had “no meaning” and called it “detached from reality.”
On Thursday, the Israeli army said it carried out an airstrike on the home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza because it “often served as a meeting place for senior Hamas leaders to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians” and Israeli soldiers.
Deaths were reported across the Gaza Strip overnight as Israeli troops attacked other locations in the north and central Gaza Strip, including two residential buildings in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
According to the United Nations, there is only one hospital left in the north of the Gaza Strip that can accept patients.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza have continued for the 41st consecutive day after Hamas militants invaded Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people. Since then, Israel has killed more than 11,300 Palestinians in Gaza.