IDF: Troops operating at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City following intel on Hamas terror activity

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari gives a statement on an operation at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, March 18, 2024, following intelligence on Hamas terror activity in the compound. (Screenshot)
IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari gives a statement on an operation at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, March 18, 2024, following intelligence on Hamas terror activity in the compound. (Screenshot)

The Israel Defense Forces says troops are operating overnight at the Al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City amid intelligence that senior Hamas officials were in the area and using the hospital to plan and carry out terror activity.

In a statement overnight, the military says troops at the hospital were “briefed in advance regarding the importance of preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment” and that Arabic speakers were with the security forces to facilitate communication with patients and staff.

IDF doctors were also on hand, according to the announcement.

The patients and the medical teams were not ordered to evacuate the hospital but the military created pathways for civilians to leave the area, the IDF says.

Once the operation at the hospital is over, “the IDF will continue the humanitarian effort and provide food, water and additional supplies to the patients and civilians in the complex,” the military says.

Israeli soldiers stand outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, November 22, 2023. (Victor R. Caivano/AP)

In an accompanying video message, IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the IDF is conducting a “high-precision operation in limited areas of Shifa Hospital, following concrete intelligence that demanded immediate action.”

“We know that senior Hamas terrorists have regrouped inside the hospital,” he says, “and are using it to command attacks against Israel.”

He says forces have undergone “specified training to prepare them for the sensitive environment and the complex scenarios they may encounter” at the hospital.

“We seek no harm to the civilians Hamas is hiding behind,” he says, adding that the IDF will conduct its operation “with caution and care while ensuring that the hospital continues its important functions.”

Hagari says IDF doctors were with the troops “to assist those in need.”

“We call upon all Hamas terrorists hiding in [the] hospital, surrender immediately. Medical facilities should never be exploited for terror. Hamas must be held accountable,” he says.

The IDF has repeatedly accused Hamas of deliberately operating from civilian areas, including hospitals, schools, mosques, and shelters.

Israel has presented evidence to back up long-standing allegations that Hamas used Al-Shifa Hospital as a major operational hub and command center and that the hospital sat atop tunnels housing headquarters for Hamas fighters using patients as shields. The US has previously corroborated the evidence presented by Israel.

Last month, the New York Times reported that a tunnel underneath Al-Shifa was used extensively by Hamas for military operations and is nearly twice as long as the IDF had previously revealed.

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