Israeli troops were searching Gaza’s largest hospital in what they called a “targeted” operation to find Hamas weapons and infrastructure, as concern grew for thousands of patients and civilians sheltering at the site.
Al-Shifa hospital, which Israel says sits on top of a dense network of underground tunnels housing Hamas command centres, has become a primary focus of the country’s nearly three-week ground offensive in Gaza.
A senior Israeli defence official said on Wednesday that troops had “already found weapons and other terrorist infrastructure” there, as well as “concrete evidence” the Palestinian militant group used it as a “terror headquarters”.
The Israel Defense Forces said soldiers had killed “a number of terrorists” on entering the hospital and were continuing to operate in the medical complex.
The Israeli raid was the climax of a days-long siege of al-Shifa that had triggered widespread fears over the fate of patients in the facility, along with thousands of people who have sought sanctuary there from Israel’s bombardment. Al-Shifa stopped functioning at the weekend because of a lack of fuel.
Medical staff reported loud sounds of fighting around al-Shifa and Israeli interrogations of people present on the grounds in the hours after tanks and soldiers entered the medical complex.
Mohamed Abu Selmeyeh, director of al-Shifa, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday: “There is intense shooting and explosions. I think they have destroyed all buildings near the hospital.
“There were also explosions last night, and this has damaged glass in the hospital, and shrapnel has entered and injured some of the displaced people.”
He added Israel had “interrogated some members of the medical teams”, but had not brought supplies such as fuel or water.
Omar Zaqout, al-Shifa’s emergency supervisor, said soldiers had questioned some displaced people and taken them “tied up and blindfolded” to “unknown locations”.
The IDF said it had delivered medical equipment, incubators and baby food to al-Shifa, and added that Israeli army medical teams and Arabic-speaking soldiers were present to ensure supplies reached those who needed them.
The World Health Organization said it had lost touch with health personnel at al-Shifa. “We’re extremely worried for their and their patients’ safety,” it added.
The IDF would be willing to consider an operational “pause” after taking control of the whole of al-Shifa, said a person familiar with Israel’s conversations with its western partners.
It would use the pause to process intelligence gained from its interrogations of people at the hospital, and to beef up logistics lines throughout Gaza before shifting its focus to the east and centre of Gaza City, the person added.
A pause would be integral to any agreement between Israel and Hamas to free hostages held by the militant group.
Talks are under way between Qatar, the US and the Jewish state to secure the release of as many as 50 civilian hostages, said a person briefed on the situation.
Negotiations were “progressing well” and an agreement would include the delivery of aid into Gaza and the release of some Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, the person added.
The al-Shifa raid came as the UN Security Council approved a resolution that called for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” in the fighting and the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages held by Hamas.
The US, the UK and Russia abstained from Wednesday’s vote, with London saying it supported the goals of getting aid in and hostages out but regretted “that the first resolution passed by the council on this matter could not clearly condemn Hamas’s terrorist attacks”.
The desperate situation in Gaza’s hospitals has caused tension between Israel and its western allies, with the US and other nations increasingly pushing Israel to exercise restraint.
International aid agencies expressed alarm at the Israeli incursion into al-Shifa. “Hospitals are not battlegrounds,” said Martin Griffiths, the UN aid chief.
“The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns.”
The senior Israeli defence official insisted Israeli troops operating in al-Shifa were present “in one specific area of the very large . . . hospital complex”.
But Zaqout told Al Jazeera that soldiers were “in all the buildings around us”, adding troops had blown up the doors to a specialised surgery centre and two basements on the site.
Doctors at al-Shifa have repeatedly dismissed Israeli claims that it is being used for Hamas’s military operations.
A government spokesperson in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, described Israel’s advance into the hospital as a “war crime, a moral crime and a crime against humanity”.
Hours before Israel announced the raid on al-Shifa, John Kirby, spokesperson for the US National Security Council, said Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group, “stored weapons” in the hospital and were “prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility”.
Kirby added Hamas was using hospitals and tunnels underneath them to hold hostages. But he said Washington did not support striking a hospital from the air or firefights on medical sites.
The raid on al-Shifa came as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which is home to 2.3mn people, continued to deepen, with shortages of food, fuel, water and other necessities.
Thomas White, director of the UN’s Palestinian aid agency UNRWA in Gaza, said on social media platform X on Wednesday that it had received half a tanker of fuel from Egypt, “but its use has been restricted by Israeli authorities — only for transporting aid from Rafah. No fuel for water or hospitals.”
People in Gaza have endured worsening conditions since Israel unleashed an offensive against Hamas following the militant group’s attack on October 7. About 1,200 people were killed in the assault, according to Israeli officials.
More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israel’s bombardment of the coastal enclave, according to Palestinian officials.
Israel’s forces last month launched a land offensive in the enclave and surrounded Gaza City, Hamas’s main political and military base. More than 1.5mn people in Gaza have been forced from their homes.
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