Israeli forces stormed the main hospital in southern Gaza on Thursday, February 15, hours after Israeli fire killed a patient and wounded six others inside the complex. The Israeli army said it was a limited operation seeking the remains of hostages taken by Hamas. The raid came a day after the army sought to evacuate thousands of displaced people who had taken shelter at Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis, the focus of Israel's offensive against Hamas in recent weeks.
The military said it had "credible intelligence" that Hamas had held hostages at the hospital and that the remains of hostages might still be inside. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesperson, said forces were conducting a "precise and limited" operation there and would not forcibly evacuate medics or patients. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian structures to shield its fighters.
Gaza's Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said Israel had launched a "massive incursion" with heavy shooting that wounded displaced people still sheltering there. He said the military had ordered medics to move all patients into an older building that was not properly equipped for their treatment. "Many cannot evacuate, such as those with lower limb amputations, severe burns, or the elderly," he said in an interview with the Al Jazeera network.
Negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza meanwhile appear to have stalled, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive until Hamas is destroyed and scores of hostages taken during the October 7 attack that sparked the war are returned.
Thousands of displaced people
Nasser Hospital has been the latest focus of operations that have gutted Gaza’s health sector as it struggles to treat scores of patients wounded in daily bombardments. Video of the aftermath of the strike overnight showed medics scrambling to wheel patients on stretchers through a corridor filled with smoke or dust.
The military had ordered the evacuation of Nasser Hospital and surrounding areas last month. But as with other health facilities, medics said patients were unable to safely leave or be relocated, and thousands of people displaced by fighting elsewhere remained there.
"People have been forced into an impossible situation," said Lisa Macheiner of the aid group Doctors Without Borders. "Stay at Nasser Hospital against the Israeli military’s orders and become a potential target, or exit the compound into an apocalyptic landscape where bombings and evacuation orders are a part of daily life." The international aid group, also known by its French- language acronym MSF, said its staff had to flee the hospital on Thursday, leaving patients behind, and that one staffer was detained at an Israeli checkpoint just outside the facility.
The war began when Hamas militants burst through Israel's defenses on October 7 and rampaged through several communities, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage. Around 130 captives remain in Gaza, a fourth of whom are believed to be dead. Israel responded to the October 7 attack by launching one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history. Over 28,000 Palestinians have been killed, 80% of the population have fled their homes and a quarter are starving amid a worsening humanitarian catastrophe.