Israel raids Gaza’s biggest hospital in search of ‘Hamas command centre’

Israeli forces have raided Al-Shifa, Gaza’s biggest hospital, in what the military says is a “precise and targeted operation” against Hamas, the Palestinian militant group.

In a statement on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the raid was based on intelligence with an aim to defeat Hamas and rescue the hostages taken by the militant group in the October 7 attack.

“We have soldiers trained specifically for this situation, and continue to reiterate we are ONLY at war with Hamas,” the statement reads.

“We continue to do everything in our power to mitigate the risk to civilians.”

Israel has claimed the hospital includes a Hamas command centre, an allegation denied by officials of the facility and Hamas.

Israel accused Hamas of continuing to use the large hospital complex for military purposes which, it claimed, “jeopardizes the hospital’s protected status under international law”.

Israel said the hospital houses a command centre for the militant group.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, vowed that the country’s forces would comb everywhere in the city as part of its mission to annihilate the militant group.

“They told us we wouldn’t reach the outskirts of Gaza City and we did, they told us we wouldn’t enter Al-Shifa (hospital) and we did,” Netanyahu said.

“There is no place in Gaza that we won’t reach.”

The United States, one of Israel’s allies, frowned at the hospital raid.

The US said it continues to believe Israel should not target hospitals in Gaza from the air while civilians should be protected from the crossfire.

“We did not give an OK to their military operations around the hospital, in similar fashion to the fact that we don’t give OKs to their other tactical operations,” John Kirby, national security council spokesperson, said

“These are Israeli military operations that they plan and they execute on, you know, in accordance with their own established procedures that the United States is not involved in.”

Global organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Health Organisation have also voiced concerns about the increased bombardment in Gaza.