Metropolis Desk-
Israeli troops conducted building-by-building searches at Gaza’s major hospital today, as a new communications blackout in the enclave heightened fears for Palestinian civilians trapped within the institution.
Since soldiers invaded the compound on Wednesday, looking for a Hamas command center, Al-Shifa hospital has become a focal point for Israeli operations in northern Gaza.
Hamas and hospital administrators deny the claim, and there has been international concern over many thousand individuals believed to be trapped inside, including injured patients and newborn babies.
Since Hamas fighters conducted an attack inside Israel on October 7, Israel has begun an unprecedented attack on Gaza.
According to Gaza authorities, Israel’s air and ground operations have killed 11,500 civilians, including thousands of children.
Israeli authorities defended their operation, and the military said Thursday that it discovered firearms, ammunition, explosives, and the entrance to an underground shaft near Al-Shifa.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that captives abducted during the October 7 incident were possibly held at the medical institution.
“We had strong indications that they were held in the Shifa Hospital, which is one of the reasons we entered the hospital,” he said on “CBS Evening News”.
“If they were [there], they were taken out,” he went on to say.
Allegations regarding the facility have not been substantiated, and contacts with the Gaza Strip were cut off again yesterday.
All telecommunications were down, according to network provider Paltel Group, since “all energy sources sustaining the network have been depleted, and fuel was not allowed in.”
The UN worried that the outage would exacerbate human suffering by hampering aid distribution and even sparking looting of its goods. “When there is a blackout and you can’t communicate with anyone… that triggers and fuels even more anxiety and panic,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
Israel stated its personnel were scouring Al-Shifa “one building at a time,” and that the body of a female hostage had been discovered in a nearby building.
Negotiations for the release of the hostages, some of whom are infants, are proceeding in exchange for a halt in violence.
Qatar, where Hamas maintains political offices, and Egypt have been mediating what Egypt’s foreign minister called “very delicate” talks on Thursday.
“We are hopeful that our efforts and the efforts of others will bring about the speedy release,” Shoukry said in a statement.
On the ground, UN organizations have warned that conditions for Palestinian people are fast deteriorating.
More than 1.5 million people have been internally displaced, and Israel’s embargo of the enclave means “civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation,” according to World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain.
Food and water have become “practically non-existent,” according to the agency, with youngsters sheltering at a UN school “pleading for a sip of water, or a loaf of bread.”
So far, Israel’s ground assault has concentrated in the northern Gaza Strip, where it has announced the takeover of the parliament building, government buildings, Hamas police headquarters, and a critical port. It claims that 51 of its troops were killed in the fighting.
Hospitals have become a specific target, with Israel claiming to have discovered tunnels or military equipment in the Al-Shifa, Rantisi, and Al-Quds facilities.
According to Palestinian health officials, the Al-Ahli hospital was attacked on Thursday, and casualties in the courtyard could not be reached by medical professionals due to explosions and shootings.
Washington has backed Israel’s claims that Hamas is utilizing hospitals as command centers while urging operations to be “extremely cautious.”
More than half of Gaza’s hospitals are no longer operational due to war, damage, or shortages, and Israel’s strike on Al-Shifa caused substantial damage to the radiology, burns, and dialysis units, according to the Gaza health ministry.
With worldwide alarm mounting about the crisis, the UN Security Council issued a resolution on Wednesday calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” in hostilities.
However, Israel condemned the resolution, which was passed with abstentions from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia, as “disconnected from reality.”
Along with the crisis in Gaza, there is growing concern about violence in the West Bank, where Israeli settlers have increased their attacks on Palestinians.
Three shooters killed an Israeli soldier and injured five others at a checkpoint heading into Jerusalem from the West Bank in an attack claimed by Hamas on Thursday.
A massive deployment of the Israeli military attacked the Jenin refugee camp overnight, according to AFP reporters there, resulting in skirmishes. The Israeli military did not immediately respond.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel on Thursday to take “urgent” action to “de-escalate tensions in the West Bank, including by confronting rising levels of settler extremist violence,” according to the State Department.
In other news, Israeli airplanes attacked locations near Syria’s capital once more, according to Syria’s national news agency. The strikes inflicted damage, but no injuries were reported.
Source- Reuters
