Israel’s military said it was carrying out a raid against Hamas in Gaza’s main hospital early on Wednesday in what it called a “precise and targeted operation”.
The Israeli Defense Force had surrounded the facility as part of its ground offensive against Hamas, claiming the militant group conceals military operations in the al-Chifa hospital complex.
Both Hamas and hospital staff deny Israel’s allegations.
Hundreds of critically wounded patients, newborns and displaced people have been trapped at the hospital amid the lengthy siege, seeing it as one of the last safe places in northern Gaza.
Dwindling supplies and no electricity have placed those inside in a dire humanitarian situation, with the hospital left with no way to run incubators and other lifesaving equipment.
Gaza’s health ministry said 40 patients, including three babies, have died since Chifa’s emergency generator ran out of fuel Saturday. Another 36 babies are at risk of dying because there is no power for incubators, according to the ministry.
After days without refrigeration, morgue staff dug a mass grave on Tuesday for 120 bodies in the yard.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it had warned “the relevant authorities in Gaza once again that all military activities within the hospital must cease within 12 hours. Unfortunately, it did not.”
“IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa hospital,” it added.
Israel says its claims of a Hamas command centre in and beneath Chifa are based on intelligence, but it has not provided visual evidence to support them.
At around 1 a.m. local time, a Gaza health ministry spokesperson said Israel had informed officials it would raid the hospital “in the coming minutes”.
“There are big explosions and dust entered the areas where we are,” Dr Munir al-Bursh, director-general of the Gaza health ministry, told Al Jazeera television, detailing that Israeli forces had raided the western side of the sprawling site.
“We believe an explosion occurred inside the hospital,” he added.
Gaza’s largest hospital has emerged as a symbol of Palestinian suffering in the war between Israel and Hamas that extends far beyond its walls.
The Strip’s health ministry has proposed evacuating the hospital with the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross and transferring the patients to hospitals in Egypt, but it has not received any response, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said.
While Israel says it is willing to allow staff and patients to evacuate, some Palestinians who have made it out say Israeli forces have fired at evacuees.
National Security spokesman John Kirby said the US has unspecified intelligence Hamas has a command centre under Chifa hospital – backing the claims of its ally Israel.
But Kirby said the US doesn’t support airstrikes on the facility where innocent people” are trying to get care.
“To be clear, we do not support striking a hospital from the air and we do not want to see a firefight in the hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve, not to be caught in a crossfire. Hospitals and patients must be protected,” he said.
“As we have been clear on multiple occasions, Hamas’s actions do not lessen Israel’s responsibility to protect civilians in Gaza, and this is obviously something we’re going to have an active conversation with our counterparts about.”
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said Israel must act within international law.
There are between 600 and 650 inpatients at al-Chifa, as well as 200 to 500 health workers, and about 1,500 displaced people seeking shelter there, according to information shared with the World Health Organization, which was posted on Sunday on X.
