Israeli forces attacked a main hospital in southern Gaza on Thursday, hours after an Israeli fire killed one patient and injured six others inside the hospital.
The Israeli military said the search for the remains of hostages captured by Hamas was a limited operation.
The attack came a day after the military tried to evacuate thousands of displaced people who had taken refuge at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.
The southern city has been a major target of Israeli Hamas attacks in recent weeks.
The military said it had received “credible information” that Hamas was holding hostages at the hospital and that their bodies may still be inside the hospital.
Major General Daniel Hagari, the military’s chief spokesman, said the military was carrying out a “precise and limited” operation there and had no intention of forcibly evacuation of medical workers or patients.
Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian facilities to protect its fighters.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Khidra said Israel had launched a “massive invasion” accompanied by heavy gunfire, leaving many of the displaced people injured.
He said the military ordered doctors to transfer all patients to old buildings that lack proper equipment for treatment.
“Many people cannot evacuate, including people with lower limb amputations, people with severe burns, and the elderly,” he said in an interview with Al Jazeera Network.
Separately, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 13 people in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, 10 civilians (mostly women and children) and three fighters from the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas terrorists in Gaza. A person died.
The airstrike came just hours after an Israeli soldier was killed in a rocket attack from Lebanon. The fighting was the worst daily firefight along the border since the war began in Gaza on October 7.
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It also highlighted the risk of broader conflict.
Negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza appear to be at a standstill, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling for the destruction of Hamas and the return of dozens of hostages taken in the October 7 attack that sparked the war. He vowed to continue the attack.
Panic scene in hospital ward
Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis has been at the center of recent activity that has devastated Gaza’s medical sector as it struggles to treat scores of patients injured by daily shelling.
Video from the aftermath of the strike showed doctors hurriedly carrying patients on stretchers through hallways filled with smoke and dust.
The medic used his cellphone flashlight to illuminate the dark room, and the wounded man screamed in pain as gunshots echoed outside.
The Associated Press could not authenticate the video, but it matched reports.
Dr. Khalid al-Sale, one of the remaining surgeons at Nasser Hospital, told The Associated Press that the seven patients attacked early Thursday were already being treated for past wounds.
He said a drone fired into the upper floors of the hospital on Wednesday, injuring one doctor slightly.
“The situation is escalating hourly and minute by minute,” he said.
The Israeli military announced Wednesday that it had opened a safe passage for displaced people to leave the hospital, but would allow doctors and patients to remain there.
Videos circulating online showed people leaving the facility on foot, carrying their belongings on their shoulders.
The military had ordered the evacuation of Nasser Hospital and surrounding areas last month.
But like other medical facilities, doctors say patients cannot safely leave or be relocated, and thousands of people evacuated by fighting elsewhere remain there. That’s what it means.
Palestinians say there is no safe place in the besieged area as Israel continues to carry out attacks across Palestine.
“People are being forced into an impossible situation,” said Lisa McKinner of the aid group Médecins Sans Frontières, which staffs the hospital.
“Either stay at Nasser Hospital against Israeli military orders and become a potential target, or leave the compound and enter an apocalyptic landscape where bombings and evacuation orders are part of everyday life.”
The month-long war has no end in sight.
The war began on October 7 when Hamas terrorists broke through Israel’s strong defenses and rampaged through multiple communities, killing around 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage.
More than 100 of the prisoners were released during last year’s ceasefire in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
About 130 prisoners remain in Gaza, a quarter of whom are believed to have died.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is under intense pressure from the families of the hostages and the public to strike a deal to secure their freedom, but his far-right coalition partners threaten to topple his government if he is seen as being too soft on Hamas. there is a possibility.
Israel launched its deadliest and most destructive military campaign in recent history in response to the October 7 attack.
More than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed, 80% of the population has been forced to flee their homes, and a quarter are starving as the humanitarian crisis worsens.
A large area of northern Gaza, the first target of the attack, was completely destroyed.
Hamas continues to attack Israeli forces across the Gaza Strip and says it will not release all remaining prisoners until Israel finishes its attacks and withdraws.
Hamas is also demanding the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners of war, including top terrorists.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected these demands as “delusional” and said Israel would soon expand its attack on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city on the Egyptian border.
More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have taken refuge in Rafah after fleeing fighting elsewhere in the coastal enclave.
At least 28,576 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, have been killed since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
More than 68,000 people were injured in the war.
Meanwhile, in northern Israel, a rocket hit a military base in the town of Safed on Wednesday, killing one female soldier and injuring eight others.
Israel responded with airstrikes in southern Lebanon, killing 10 civilians, including three Hezbollah fighters, six women and three children.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire almost daily along the border since the war in Gaza began. Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for Wednesday’s rocket attack.
