KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces dropped leaflets urging Palestinians to flee parts of the southern Gaza Strip, residents said Thursday. That signaled a possible expansion of their offensive into areas where hundreds of thousands of people who had obeyed earlier evacuation orders are crowded into UN-run shelters and single-family homes.
Meanwhile, soldiers continued to search Shifa Hospital in the north and began a raid early Wednesday. They displayed weapons they said were found hidden in a building, but have not yet released evidence of the central Hamas command center, which Israel said was hidden beneath the complex. Hamas and employees of the hospital, the largest hospital in Gaza, deny the allegations.
An expansion of operations south – where Israel already carries out daily airstrikes – threatens to worsen the already severe humanitarian crisis in the besieged area. Over 1.5 million people have been internally displaced in Gaza, most of whom have fled to the south, where food, water and electricity are becoming increasingly scarce.
It is not clear where else they could go, as Egypt refuses to allow mass transmission onto its soil.
The war, now in its sixth week, was sparked by a widespread Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 in which the militants killed over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and captured about 240 men, women and children. Israel responded with a weeks-long airstrike and ground invasion of northern Gaza, promising to oust Hamas from power and dismantle its military capabilities.
According to Palestinian health authorities, more than 11,200 Palestinians were killed, two-thirds of them women and minors. Another 2,700 were reported missing, most of them believed to be buried under the rubble. The official count does not distinguish between civilian and militant deaths, and Israel says it has killed thousands of militants.
The war has fueled tensions elsewhere. On Thursday, gunmen shot and wounded four people at a checkpoint on the main road linking Jerusalem to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Police said three attackers were killed and a search for others was underway.
SOME WEAPONS BUT NO TUNNELS SO FAR
Israeli troops stormed Gaza’s largest hospital on Wednesday, searching for signs of Hamas inside and beneath the facility, where newborns and hundreds of other patients suffered for days without power and other basic needs.
Troops searched the hospital’s underground floors on Thursday and arrested technicians responsible for operating the equipment, the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip said in a statement.
In this image taken from a video released by the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday, November 14, 2023, an Israeli soldier holds a weapon in Gaza City. (Israeli Defense Forces via AP)
The military said its soldiers were accompanied by medical teams who brought incubators and other supplies.
After surrounding Shifa for days, Israel is under pressure to prove its claim that Hamas used the patients, staff and civilians housed there to provide cover for its fighters. The claim is part of Israel’s broader accusation that Hamas is using Palestinians as human shields.
The military released a video from inside Shifa that showed three duffel bags it said it found hidden near an MRI lab, each containing an assault rifle, grenades and Hamas uniforms, as well as a cabinet containing several assault rifles without Contained ammunition clips. The Associated Press could not independently verify Israeli claims that the weapons were found at the hospital.
A Palestinian boy stands amid the destruction following Israeli attacks on Rafah in the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
Hamas and Gaza health authorities deny that militants operate in Shifa – a hospital that employs about 1,500 people and has more than 500 beds. Palestinians and human rights groups accuse Israel of recklessly endangering civilians.
Munir al-Boursh, a senior Gaza Health Ministry official at the hospital, said troops had searched the basement and other buildings and were questioning and facially screening patients, staff and people sheltering in the facility.
Israeli forces fought militants outside the hospital for days, but there were no reports of militants firing from Shifa or of fighting inside the hospital following the entry of Israeli troops.
At one point, tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing Israeli bombardment sought refuge in Shifa, but most left in recent days as fighting neared.
The Health Ministry said 40 patients, including three babies, had died since Shifa’s emergency generator ran out of fuel on Saturday. There was no word on the condition of another 36 babies who the ministry had previously said were at risk of dying because there was no electricity for incubators.
LOOKING SOUTH
The leaflets, dropped in areas east of the southern city of Khan Younis, warned civilians to evacuate and said anyone near militants or their positions was “putting their lives in danger.” Similar leaflets were dropped over the northern Gaza Strip for weeks before the ground invasion.
Two reporters who live east of Khan Younis confirmed seeing the leaflets. Others shared images of the leaflets on social media. The military declined to comment.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday the ground operation would ultimately “include both the north and the south.” We will attack Hamas wherever it is.”
The military says it has largely consolidated its control over the north, including by seizing and destroying government buildings. On Thursday, the army released a video that showed soldiers moving between badly damaged buildings through holes in the walls.
The military said it blew up a home belonging to Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader based abroad. It was unclear whether anyone was in the building.
With most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people living in the territory’s south, residents say bread is in short supply and supermarket shelves are empty. Families cook on wood fires due to lack of fuel. Central electricity and running water have been out for weeks.
Worsening fuel shortages threaten to cripple the delivery of humanitarian services and cripple mobile and internet services.
Israel on Wednesday allowed a small amount of fuel to enter the Gaza Strip for the first time since the war began so that the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees could continue to bring limited aid supplies.
The fuel cannot be used for hospitals or to desalinate water and covers less than 10% of what the agency needs to maintain “life-saving activities,” said Thomas White, the agency’s Gaza director.
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Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Amy Teibel and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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Complete AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.