Palestinians flee as Israeli forces raid a major hospital in Gaza

The Israeli army raided the largest functioning hospital in the Gaza Strip on Thursday in what it called a search for Hamas fighters and the bodies of hostages. Many people who had sought shelter there had to flee the fighting again.

Explosions and gunfire rocked the hospital in the city of Khan Younis, the Nasser Medical Complex, before the pre-dawn raid, killing and wounding several people, including at least one doctor and a patient, a doctor there said, as well as the charity Doctors Without. Borders, where staff worked in the hospital, and the Gaza health authorities. The specific casualty claims, like many claims in the conflict, could not immediately be confirmed.

Videos posted on social media on Thursday and voice messages sent by doctors overnight, both before and after Israeli forces broke through the perimeter wall and entered the complex, showed scenes of chaos and fear in the damaged, smoke-filled hospital, punctuated by automatic gunfire, explosions and shouting.

A video, verified by The New York Times, showed damage to the hospital and wounded people being rushed through a smoke-filled corridor among the rubble, amid the sound of gunfire. Witnesses said hundreds of people — possibly thousands — later stood in long lines as Israeli forces screened them, a few at a time, for evacuation.

The Israeli military said it had detained dozens of people, but did not say who or why.

“We have credible information from a number of sources, including from released hostages, that Hamas has been holding hostages at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, and that there may be bodies of our hostages at the Nasser Hospital,” Admiral said. Daniel Hagari. , the Israeli army's chief spokesman said in a video statement.

The military did not say whether any hostages or Hamas fighters had been found. Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, said Israeli forces had used bulldozers to dig up graves on the hospital grounds.

Two days before the raid, Israeli forces surrounding the medical center had told displaced people over loudspeakers to evacuate, signaling that a raid was coming, although international rights and medical groups warned of dire consequences. Some of the Palestinians who took refuge there did leave, but others said it was too dangerous; some had tried and said gunfire and airstrikes had forced them to turn back.

Doctors and health officials said some people who tried to flee on Tuesday were killed. Asked for comment, the Israeli military did not respond to specific allegations about people coming under fire.

“We really don't know what to do,” said a local journalist, Mohammed Salama, said in a video posted on social media on Wednesday. In the background, people lined up with bags of supplies to leave the hospital, but he said people trying to evacuate had to wait at checkpoints for hours.

The Israeli military said Thursday it had opened a “humanitarian corridor” for people leaving the hospital, but even then, witnesses who fled said it was a harrowing and dangerous experience.

Gaza officials said about 300 medical workers, 450 injured patients and 8,000 people displaced from their homes elsewhere in the territory were on the hospital grounds as the week began. It was unclear how many were still present on Thursday morning.

As Israel tries to crush Hamas in Gaza, Israel also faces a conflict with Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group based in Lebanon, which has increased its rocket fire into Israel in solidarity with Hamas. The two sides have carried out dozens of attacks across Israel's northern border since October, and both sides have threatened further escalation. US officials have advocated calm in an effort to prevent the opening of a full-fledged second front in the war.

Israeli forces carried out multiple airstrikes in Lebanon on Thursday, a day after a series of strikes that Lebanese state media said killed 10 civilians and that Hezbollah said killed several of its fighters.

The attack on the Nasser hospital was “a precise and limited operation” carried out by “special forces who have undergone special training for this mission,” Admiral Hagari said. Israeli forces had not told patients or medical staff to leave, he added, saying Israel in fact wanted the hospital to continue functioning.

But according to multiple accounts, most medical workers and patients have been evacuated. Mr Salama said Israeli forces told doctors to leave, but not along the same route as others. Doctors Without Borders said in a statement that “our medical staff had to flee the hospital, leaving patients behind,” and that “one of our colleagues was detained” by the Israelis.

Dr. Islam Sawaly, a doctor in Nasser, said she and a group of others left the hospital around 3 a.m. and walked along a dark, potholed road for more than four hours. “We fell into sewer ditches,” she says. They eventually reached the area of ​​Miraj, between Khan Younis and Rafah, the town along the border with Egypt where more than a million Gazans have sought refuge.

Doctors Without Borders said only the sickest patients had remained in Nasser, although the number was unclear. In voice memos shared by the group, a doctor at the hospital, whose name it withheld for his safety, said Israeli forces had moved all remaining staff and patients into one building, the oldest in the complex, and that there were only about 40 employees left. .

Before the attack began, a rocket struck the hospital around 2 a.m., killing a patient in his bed and wounding six others, the doctor said in the voice message. Dr. Sawaly said another rocket attack had killed a doctor and left two other people with burns, although health officials in Gaza said the doctor was injured but not killed.

Hospitals have been a flashpoint during the war that began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, which Israeli officials say killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage, with more than 130 reportedly still held hostage are being held in Gaza. Egypt-Qatar-mediated talks on a ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages are underway in Cairo this week, but the two sides appear far apart.

Israel has faced widespread international condemnation for its conduct in the war, which health authorities in Gaza say has killed more than 28,000 people and destroyed much of the enclave's infrastructure. Much of that criticism focused on attacks on hospitals, mosques and schools, which should be protected by the laws of war.

Israel has long accused Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, of using places as de facto military bases and civilians there as human shields – itself a violation of international law – on the grounds that it is less likely they are directly attacked. In some cases, the Israelis claim, these facilities include key nodes in Hamas' vast tunnel network. Hamas and hospital officials deny the claims.

Most hospitals in Gaza no longer function as hospitals. Those that still do are overcrowded, many damaged and lacking essential supplies. Israel says it has secured delivery of needed supplies to Nasser; the United Nations says Israel has blocked such deliveries.

Israel has repeatedly ordered evacuations of civilians, starting in northern Gaza and working its way south, displacing many people multiple times and steadily pushing them into more crowded areas. Palestinians and aid groups say there is no safe place in Gaza amid falling bombs, street fighting and scarce supplies.

Khan Younis, one of the main cities in southern Gaza, has been the focus of ground fighting for weeks, with Israeli officials describing it as a Hamas stronghold.

More than half of Gaza's roughly 2.3 million residents have taken refuge in Rafah, many of them sleeping in makeshift shelters and tents. Israeli officials have said the army will eventually invade Rafah as well.

Reporting was contributed by Rawan Sheikh Ahmad from Haifa, Israel; Ameera Harouda from Doha, Qatar; Patrick Kingsley from Jerusalem, Adam Sella from Tel Aviv, Euan district from Beirut and Richard Perez-Peña From New York.