Israeli troops storm southern Gaza’s largest hospital after besieging and attacking it for days

Israeli troops have been besieging the Nasser medical complex in the city of Khan Yunis, the largest city in southern Gaza and where fighting is currently concentrated, for several days. This Thursday, they finally broke into the largest hospital south of the Strip, where thousands of internally displaced people had taken refuge, thinking it was a safe place. The Israeli army has once again demonstrated that health centers are also not health centers as this is not the first incident of being surrounded, attacked, assaulted and evicted.

Gaza’s health ministry, controlled by the Islamist group Hamas, condemned in a statement that the army had entered the Nasser compound and turned it into a “military base” after demolishing the southern wall of the compound to gain entry. In this. Subsequently, the army forced displaced people living inside the health facility, as well as doctors and their families, to leave “under attacks and threats”, according to Health, which previously reported that Israeli snipers fired on people. Was doing. Inside Nasser Complex.

The NGO Doctors Without Borders, which has staff at that hospital, said in a statement that on February 13, an Israeli military excavator destroyed the northern door of the hospital compound and ordered displaced people to go through it. He said healthcare workers and patients are allowed to stay in the hospital “with a limit of one caregiver per patient”, but the conditions under which they are working are “almost impossible”. Lisa Machner, MSF project coordinator in Gaza, condemned that “people have been forced into an impossible situation: stay in the Nasser hospital against Israeli military orders and become potential targets, or leave the compound in an apocalyptic scenario where bombings “And evacuation orders are part of daily life.”

According to MSF, at least five people have died in Nasser facilities over the past few days and since the 13th, most of the displaced have left but do not know where to go. “People ask us: ‘Where is it safe? Where should we go?’, but there’s no answer, and it really creates a feeling of despair. People no longer know what to do. They feel unsafe.” And afraid of what might happen,” says McIner.

For its part, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced this Thursday that they are carrying out a “precise and limited operation” in Nasser Hospital, the purpose of which is to find members of Hamas, including some suspected of involvement in the attack. Are included. against Israeli towns on 7 October – killing approximately 1,200 people.

“On Tuesday, the IDF officially contacted the director of Nasser Medical Center and requested an immediate cessation of all Hamas terrorist activities from inside the hospital and the immediate evacuation of Hamas terrorists from the hospital,” he said in a statement. This is not the first time that Israel has accused Hamas of operating from a health facility and even hiding in tunnels beneath the hospital, as was the case with Al Shifa in Gaza City.

Furthermore, the IDF assured that it had “reliable” intelligence indicating that Hamas was holding some of the kidnapped hostages in the Nasser Center in Khan Yunis and that their bodies may be in that facility. In fact, the Health Ministry has said that soldiers have started digging mass graves in the hospital courtyard, where the dead patients were buried.