Israel seizes the Gaza hospital that became a symbol of the war itself
What Israel finds — or doesn’t find — at the hospital could shape international sentiment about the invasion and influence negotiations taking place over the release of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas.
Eighteen hours after the hospital raid began, the Israeli military released photos and videos it said supported its claims. It distributed images of 13 weapons it said its soldiers had discovered at the hospital, as well as a statement saying it had found a military command center in the hospital’s MRI unit.
In a video taken at the hospital, a military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, showed stockpiles of weapons, ammunition, protective vests and Hamas military uniforms, some of which, he said, were hidden behind MRI machines and others in nearby areas. storage areas.
The New York Times could not verify the origin of the weapons and equipment in the images, nor assess the claim about the existence of the command center. Apart from a firefight outside the hospital at the start of the raid, there were no reports of clashes with Hamas gunmen on site.
In a statement, Hamas dismissed the Israeli story as “a fabricated story that no one would believe.”
Should the Israelis ultimately fail to produce convincing evidence that the hospital was being used to house troops, store weapons and direct fighters, they may find that the time remaining to achieve their stated goal – taking power from Hamas – has been shortened. . The Israeli attack on Al-Shifa has already sparked global concern; If the necessity of the incursion is not proven, it could lead to Israel’s international partners reducing their support for further Israeli operations in Gaza.
A spokesman for the US National Security Council, John F. Kirby, rejecting Hamas’s claims that the United States “green-lighted” the attack on Al-Shifa, said on Wednesday that Israel had not warned the White House in advance.
The war began on October 7, after Hamas led a terrorist attack on Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 people and kidnapped about 240 others, Israeli officials said. In the 40 days since, Israel’s counterattack — by air, sea and land — has killed more than 11,000 people in Gaza, including more than 4,600 children, according to Gaza health officials.
Israel is trying to oust Hamas from power and restore control over territory it occupied between 1967 and 2005. Since 2007, when Hamas took full control of the narrow coastal enclave, Israel, together with Egypt, has maintained a tight blockade. on Gaza.
Initially, at least, the raid on Wednesday appeared to proceed without major bloodshed.
Israeli soldiers briefly exchanged fire with gunmen outside the hospital before entering the hospital, a senior military official said.
The hospital director, Mohammad Abu Salmiya, said in a television interview with Al Jazeera that the soldiers destroyed a wall of the hospital complex before entering, shattering several windows and wounding people inside with shrapnel.
“We can see the tanks in front of our eyes and we can see the soldiers walking through the hospital,” he said.