The israeli forces they carried out Arrests at Gaza’s largest operating hospitalas reported on Saturday by health and military officials, while the air strikes They hit the entire enclave and rain hit the Palestinians who took refuge in Rafah.
On Thursday, Israeli forces stormed the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in their war against Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that rules the enclave.
“The occupation forces detained a large number of medical personnel inside the Nasser Medical Complex, which (Israel) converted into a military base,” said Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra.
The Israeli military claimed it was searching for militants in Nasser and had so far detained 100 suspects at the facility, killed gunmen near the hospital and found weapons inside.
Hamas has denied accusations that its fighters use medical facilities as cover. At least two freed Israeli hostages have stated that they were held in Nasser.
The Israeli raid on the hospital has raised alarm bells for patients, medical workers and displaced Palestinians taking refuge there.
About 10,000 people took shelter in the hospital earlier this week, but many left in anticipation of the Israeli incursion or because of Israeli evacuation orders, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Further south, in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are sheltering, the winter cold added to the already dire conditions as the wind blew away some displaced people’s tents and rain flooded others. . Israeli plans to storm Rafah have raised international concerns that such action would dramatically worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh blamed Israel for the lack of progress in reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the group said in a statement on Saturday.
Haniyeh added that Hamas would not accept anything other than a complete cessation of hostilities, the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the “lifting of the unjust siege,” as well as the release of Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences in Israeli jails.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised a “complete victory” over Hamas, but added Wednesday that flexibility in the group’s stance could advance negotiations for a deal involving the release of the hostages.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has devastated much of Gaza and forced almost all of its inhabitants to flee their homes. Palestinian health authorities say 28,858 people have died, mostly civilians.
The war began when Hamas sent fighters into Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli counts. At least 83 people have been killed in airstrikes across the Gaza Strip since Friday, according to health authorities, including one person on Saturday in Rafah, an area bordering Egypt that Israel says is Hamas’s last stronghold.
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell.-
Source: Ambito
