Not Just Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza Hospitals are Under Increasing Attack by Israel Forces | EXPLAINED

The Israel military is expanding its operation in the Gaza neighbourhoods after it took control over the Al Shifa hospital last week.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to the October 7 attacks and the resultant violence has killed over 13,000 Palestinians so far, including 5,000 children.

Last week, Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital had been the focus of an Israeli special forces operation for days, where the military searched for Hamas command centre which it insists is concealed within the facility.

Why Israel Attacked Al-Shifa Hospital?

Israeli troops raided Al-Shifa Hospital last Wednesday on suspicion that it was being used as a Hamas base. The Israeli military on Sunday claimed to have discovered a tunnel under Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital that stretched 55-metres beneath the war-torn complex.

“IDF troops exposed a 55-meter-long terror tunnel 10 metres deep underneath the Shifa hospital complex,” which ran under the hospital and ended at a blast door, an army statement said.

Military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters the entrance was uncovered when a military bulldozer knocked down the outside wall of the hospital complex and found a fortified shaft with a spiral staircase descending 10 metres (yards).

The Israel military also released CCTV footage, which appears to be time-stamped October 7, that it said showed two male hostages from Nepal and Thailand being brought into Al-Shifa.

Israel has been under pressure to prove its claims that a Hamas command centre is concealed beneath the hospital, a charge the militants and medical staff have denied.

When the army first entered Al-Shifa on Wednesday, there were “around 2,000 people inside”, Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said.

The military operation in the Gaza’s largest hospital left people including injured and premature babies being evacuating to save their lives, while many others remained trapped. Palestinian medics evacuated 31 premature babies from the hospital in a high-risk operation, the UN said.

The World Health Organization has described the hospital as a “death zone” after sending in a team to visit the facility on Saturday.

Why is Israel Attacking Hospitals?

After launching attack on Al-Shifa, the Israeli forces also surrounded Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital under siege on Thursday.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society earlier last week said a “violent attack” was underway at the facility though it was the only hospital with in-patient capacity in north Gaza remaining operational and admitting patients, the health ministry said.

More than half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are non-functioning by shortages, combat or damage, according to the UN.

Here are some of the reasons why the hospital have been a centre of attacks by the Israeli forces:

• Information War: Israel has for long claimed that Hamas operates in Al-Shifa and the allegation has been a crucial part of its information war. By launching what it called a “precise and targeted operation” on the hospital, Israel got a chance to present evidence that backed its charges about Hamas and add legitimacy to its assault on Gaza.
• Hamas Operative: Apart from claiming to discover tunnel, the Israeli army also published footage claiming to show rifles, explosives, and Hamas uniforms at the hospital. “These findings prove that the Hamas terrorist organisation used the Shifa hospital complex on the day of the massacre as terrorist infrastructure,” the military and intelligence services said in a statement.
• Palestine Death Toll: The attack on hospitals also hampers the Hamas-run health ministry to document casualty figures, which has exceeded 13,000 among Palestinians. Palestinian doctors and officials had been updating death and injury tolls throughout Israel’s war on the besieged enclave. After the attack on hospitals in the North, the ministry has faced challenges in updating the number of casualties because of collapsing services and communications.
• Pushing people South: Many injured and other Palestinians sought refuge in medical facilities and schools amid the ongoing violence, while Al-Shifa, at one point, housed 60,000 displaced people. Several reports said that there are fears that Palestinians will be pushed further south until they are forced into neighbouring Egypt.