Gaza: The Palestinian health ministry said an Israeli raid had “destroyed” a medical department and damaged two others at Gaza’s largest hospital, where hundreds of patients, staff and displaced Palestinians were sheltering.
Israeli forces who went into Al-Shifa hospital yesterday had “destroyed the radiology service, and bombed the burns and dialysis departments”, health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said.
Israeli commandos are searching through every building and every floor of Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital while hundreds of patients and medical staff remain in the complex, an Israeli military official told the foreign news agency.
“The operation is shaped by our understanding that there is well-hidden terrorist infrastructure in the complex,” the official said, declining to be named.
“Hamas weapons and equipment” had been found in Al-Shifa, the official said, adding that “Hamas has persistently worked to conceal infrastructure and cover up evidence” in Gaza’s hospitals.
Hamas has denied operating out of medical facilities.
All telecom services in the Gaza Strip have gone down as all energy sources sustaining the network have been depleted, Gaza’s main telecommunications companies Paltel and Jawwal said in a statement.