IDF calling for Hamas surrender in Shifa Hospital
Based on intelligence information, IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa Hospital.
Gaza’s Shifa Hospital operating without interruption on Oct. 29, 2023. Photo by Majdi Fathi/TPS
The IDF reports: “The IDF is conducting a ground operation in Gaza to defeat Hamas and rescue our hostages. Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the civilians in Gaza.
The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields. In recent weeks, the IDF has publicly warned time and again that Hamas’ continued military use of the Shifa hospital jeopardizes its protected status under international law, and enabled ample time to stop this unlawful abuse of the hospital. Yesterday, the IDF conveyed to the relevant authorities in Gaza once again that all military activities within the hospital must cease within 12 hours. Unfortunately, it did not.
The IDF has also facilitated wide-scale evacuations of the hospital and maintained regular dialogue with hospital authorities.
We call upon all Hamas terrorists present in the hospital to surrender.”
The military added that forces were joined by medical teams and Arabic speakers “who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields.”
Briefing reporters on Tuesday night, IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari warned that Gaza’s medical facilities were losing their protected status because of Hamas activities there.
“In recent weeks we have stressed again and again, that because of Hamas’s use of hospitals for military purposes, it will lose its special protection under intentional law,” Hagari said.
“We are forced to operate in a focused and careful manner against Hamas’s terror infrastructure in the hospitals,” he continued. “We call on the Hamas operatives who are hiding in the hospitals to surrender so as not to endanger those in the hospitals.”
The White House confirmed Israel’s assessment on Tuesday.
“We have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including al-Shifa, and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
Citing American findings, Kirby added, “Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad members operate a command and control [centre] from al-Shifa in Gaza City. They have stored weapons there and they’re prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.”
As reported by the Tazpit Press Service, Hamas makes extensive use of the Shifa Hospital. Believing that Israel would not attack a hospital during a war, Hamas leaders hide there, launch rockets from its compound, hide hostages in the bowels of the building, torture collaborators, and dig tunnels connecting Shifa to nearby sites. Israel also released a recording of a phone call confirming that Hamas also stores at least a half-million liters of fuel underneath the compound.
Located in Gaza’s North Rimal neighbourhood and boasting 570 beds, Shifa is the Strip’s largest medical centre, serving the medical needs of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. It was originally built by British authorities in 1946. In the 1980s, Israel renovated and expanded Shifa as part of an initiative to improve Gaza living conditions.
As far back as 2009, the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) reported during the Gaza war of that year that Hamas operatives were hiding in the hospital and that the basement had become Hamas’s headquarters.
In addition to being used to hide Hamas leaders and hostages, the terror group is known to have launched rockets, tortured suspected collaborators and hoarded a half-million litres of fuel in the hospital compound.
TPS/IDF
