Israeli soldiers enter Al-Naser Hospital in Khan Younis, south of Gaza
The Israeli army has reported that members of its “special forces” are operating at Al Naser Hospital in Khan Younis, south of Gaza. According to a statement, they entered after receiving intelligence information about “terrorist activity” inside and about the alleged hiding of hostages in the hospital, which may also contain bodies of people kidnapped in the Hamas attacks on October 7 had been. Although the army assures that the attack was preceded by an evacuation “attack” to reduce the damage, Palestinian sources denounce that the soldiers entered “by force” after intense bombardment and forced new evacuations and transfers of people in serious condition would have.
According to the Israeli statement, the soldiers entered the hospital after receiving “intelligence information indicating Hamas terrorist activities in the hospital and their aim is to reach terrorist agents, including those suspected of taking part in the massacre “To have been involved on October 7th”. He claims his troops arrested “several suspects” at the clinic. According to the Israeli version, “the operation was preceded by an attempt to evacuate the residents of the hospital in order to reduce the damage to those who were not involved,” for which they allegedly opened “a special passage” for the evacuation of the civilians accommodated. The center towards “a humanitarian zone”. Finally, he denounces that Hamas “systematically and cynically” “operates from hospitals and civilian infrastructure.”
According to spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, Ashraf al Qudra, Israeli soldiers stormed the complex and forced new evacuations. “Israeli occupation attacks Al Naser Medical Complex, turning it into military barracks after demolishing the southern wall,” Al Qudra reported, adding that the army also attacked the ambulance department and tents for internally displaced people at the medical facility.
“Today at dawn and under fire,” the soldiers ordered “by force” the evacuation of some of the displaced people and members of the medical staff remaining in the center, he said. They also ordered medical teams to move all patients, “including those in intensive care and pediatrics,” to a specific hospital building, a near-impossible task for six patients requiring assisted ventilation. Hours earlier, in the midst of the siege in the center, one Palestinian was killed and several injured in an Israeli attack on the hospital.
For more than 25 days, health authorities have denounced the siege of Al Naser by Israeli forces, and last Tuesday the army ordered the evacuation of 10,000 Gazans seeking refuge at the site. According to Health, this Thursday there were still about 1,500 displaced people in the hospital, where the situation was “catastrophic”, in addition to about 190 health workers and about 300 of their relatives. Among the admitted patients are “273 patients who cannot move,” including 18 in intensive care and 35 on dialysis, which made their evacuation difficult due to the Israeli order.
Naser Hospital is the largest medical center in the southern Gaza Strip, where Israeli troops have been carrying out a ground offensive since early December that has also laid siege to the city's other hospital, Al Amal. The UN has denounced that Israeli soldiers surrounded the hospital for days and that their snipers fired on the center, endangering the lives of doctors, patients and refugees.