Live Update arrow right icon From the Liveblog of Thursday, July 18, 2024

Turkey slams destruction of hospital near Gaza City; IDF: Hamas used it as military complex, to hold hostages

By Lazar Berman 18 July 2024, 12:27 pm 10 Edit

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

After IDF soldiers took a photo in front of the destroyed Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital south of Gaza City, the Turkish Foreign Ministry calls the image “further evidence of Israel’s violation of international law and international humanitarian law.”

The photo circulated in Palestinian media earlier this week.

“The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital is the only centre for cancer patients in Gaza. The damage caused to the hospital by the Israeli forces and its use as a military base is part of Israel’s systematic policy aimed at the annihilation of the Palestinian people,” claims Ankara, which suspended trade with Israel over the war on Hamas.

“We will continue to work to ensure that those responsible for these attacks are brought to justice in international courts,” pledges Turkey.

In response, the IDF tells The Times of Israel that “many shafts and terrorist infrastructure were exposed that connected the hospital to military terror tunnels about 10 kilometers long.”

“There tunnels were used by Hamas operatives, and were the means by which they turned the area in a military complex, with the hospital at its center,” the IDF continues.

The army stresses that Hamas “completely converted” the campus from a medical complex to a military one, and that all medical activity had been suspended by the time the IDF took it over.

“Hamas planted explosives in the hospital and used it to fire at our forces,” says the IDF, which says Hamas used the hospital for command-and-control, and to hold hostages.

The IDF says that operations to destroy the tunnel network in the area continue.

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