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RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces stormed the primary hospital in southern Gaza on Thursday, hours after Israeli hearth killed a affected person and wounded six others contained in the advanced. The Israeli military mentioned it was searching for the stays of hostages taken by Hamas.
The raid on Nasser Hospital got here after troops had besieged the power for almost every week, with a whole lot of workers, sufferers and others inside struggling beneath heavy hearth and dwindling provides, together with meals and water. A day earlier, the military ordered hundreds of displaced individuals who had taken shelter there to go away the hospital within the metropolis of Khan Younis, the main target of Israel’s offensive in opposition to Hamas in latest weeks.
The battle reveals no signal of ending, and the chance of a broader battle grew as Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group stepped up assaults after a very lethal change on Wednesday.
The army mentioned it had “credible intelligence” that Hamas had held hostages at Nasser Hospital and that the hostages’ stays would possibly nonetheless be inside. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief army spokesperson, mentioned forces have been conducting a “exact and restricted” operation there and wouldn’t forcibly evacuate medics or sufferers. Israel accuses Hamas of utilizing hospitals and different civilian constructions to protect its fighters.
A launched hostage instructed The Related Press final month that she and over two dozen different captives had been held in Nasser Hospital. Worldwide legislation prohibits the focusing on of medical amenities; they’ll lose these protections if they’re used for army functions, although operations in opposition to them nonetheless have to be proportional to any menace.
As troops searched hospital buildings, they ordered the greater than 460 workers, sufferers and their relations to maneuver into an older constructing within the compound that is not geared up to deal with sufferers, the Gaza Well being Ministry mentioned. They have been “in harsh circumstances with no meals or child formulation” and extreme water shortages, it mentioned.
Six sufferers have been left in intensive care, together with three infants in incubators with no workers to take care of them. The ministry mentioned gas for turbines would quickly run out, endangering their lives.
Individually, Israel launched airstrikes into southern Lebanon for a second day after killing 10 civilians and three Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday in response to a rocket assault that killed an Israeli soldier and wounded a number of others.
It was the deadliest change of fireplace alongside the border for the reason that begin of the Israel-Hamas battle. Israel and Hezbollah — an ally of Hamas — have traded hearth every day, elevating the dangers of a broader battle.
Hezbollah has not claimed accountability for Wednesday’s rocket assault. Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, a senior member of the group, mentioned it’s “ready for the potential for increasing the battle” and would meet “escalation with escalation, displacement with displacement, and destruction with destruction.”
Negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza, in the meantime, seem to have stalled, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to proceed the offensive till Hamas is destroyed and scores of hostages taken in the course of the militants’ Oct. 7 assault are freed.
Nasser Hospital has been the newest focus of Israeli army operations which have gutted Gaza’s well being sector because it struggles to deal with a continuing stream of individuals wounded in day by day bombardments.
Israeli troops, tanks and snipers have surrounded the hospital for a minimum of every week, and hearth from exterior has lately killed a number of folks inside, based on well being officers.
“There’s no water, no meals. Rubbish is in all places. Sewage has flooded the emergency ward,” mentioned Raed Abed, a wounded affected person who was amongst those that left Nasser Hospital on Israeli orders Wednesday.
Nonetheless affected by a extreme abdomen wound, Abed mentioned he initially collapsed as he received out of his hospital mattress and tried to go away. He then waited exterior for hours as troops made these leaving go by 5 at a time, arresting some and making them strip to their underwear, he mentioned. Lastly, he walked for miles till he reached the border city of Rafah, the place he was put in a hospital. Mendacity in a mattress there, he wheezed in ache from his wound as he spoke.
In a single day, a strike slammed into certainly one of Nasser Hospital’s wards, killing one affected person and wounding six others, Dr. Khaled Alserr, one of many remaining surgeons there, instructed the AP.
Video confirmed medics scrambling to maneuver sufferers down a hall full of smoke or mud, whereas in a darkish room a wounded man screamed in ache as gunfire echoed exterior.
“The state of affairs is escalating each hour and each minute,” Alserr mentioned.
The worldwide support group Docs With out Borders, additionally recognized by its French language acronym MSF, mentioned its workers needed to flee the hospital on Thursday, leaving sufferers behind, and that one staffer was detained at an Israeli checkpoint simply exterior the power.
Hours after troops entered the hospital, army spokesman Hagari mentioned they have been nonetheless conducting searches. He mentioned dozens of militants have been arrested from the hospital grounds, together with three who participated within the Oct. 7 assault. He additionally mentioned troops discovered grenades and mortar shells, and that Israeli radar decided that militants fired mortars from the hospital grounds a month in the past.
The battle started when Hamas militants on Oct. 7 burst out of Gaza and attacked a number of Israeli communities, killing some 1,200 folks and taking one other 250 hostage. Greater than 100 captives have been freed throughout a weeklong cease-fire in change for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Round 130 captives stay in Gaza, a fourth of whom are believed to be lifeless. Netanyahu has come beneath intense stress from hostages’ households and the broader public to make a deal to safe their freedom, however his far-right coalition companions may deliver down his authorities if he’s seen as being too smooth on Hamas. Dozens of hostages’ relations protested and blocked visitors Thursday exterior the army’s headquarters, the place the Conflict Cupboard additionally meets.
Israel responded to the Hamas assault with one of many deadliest and most damaging army campaigns in latest historical past.
Not less than 28,663 Palestinians have been killed, principally ladies and youngsters, and greater than 68,000 wounded, based on Gaza’s Well being Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. Some 80% of the inhabitants has been pushed from their houses, and 1 / 4 are ravenous amid a worsening humanitarian disaster. Massive areas in northern Gaza, the primary goal of the offensive, have been fully destroyed.
Israeli media reported that CIA Director William Burns flew to Israel to satisfy with Netanyahu to debate efforts for a cease-fire.
Hamas says it won’t launch all of the remaining captives till Israel ends its offensive, withdraws and frees Palestinian prisoners, together with high militants.
Netanyahu has rejected these calls for and says Israel will quickly develop its offensive into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost metropolis. Over half of Gaza’s inhabitants of two.3 million has sought refuge in Rafah after fleeing preventing elsewhere.
Airstrikes late Wednesday in central Gaza killed a minimum of 11 folks, together with 4 youngsters and 5 ladies, based on hospital information. Kinfolk gathered round our bodies wrapped in white shrouds exterior Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital within the central city of Deir al-Balah earlier than the stays have been positioned in a truck to be taken for burial.
One man struggled to let go, mendacity down and holding one of many our bodies on the truck as he wept.
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Mroue reported from Beirut and Lidman from Jerusalem. Related Press author Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
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Discover extra of AP’s protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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