‘Know Exactly What’s inside, Al Shifa Raid Will Expand’: Israeli Army as Tanks Enter Hospital Compound – News18

The Israeli army said the raid at Al-Shifa Hospital will be widened if necessary and said that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) knows exactly what it will find there. “We are starting small, and the operation will expand as necessary. The entry of troops into Al-Shifa is more of a challenge for the media (optics) than an operation,” the official was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel.

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“The decision was that we enter Al-Shifa only if we know exactly what is there and where it is, as we did at Rantisi Hospital, which was only (raided) when we knew exactly what was in its basement,” the aforementioned official said.

The IDF has maintained that the raid that it is carrying out is a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier on Monday, the IDF shared a series of photographs and a video depicting it as proof that the basement of Gaza City’s Rantisi Children’s Hospital was used by Hamas to hide arms and possibly detain hostages kidnapped on October 7.

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Israel is facing mounting international pressure to give in to calls for hostage release via mediation and discuss a possible ceasefire to allow for hostage rescue.

Qatar has been urging Israel and Hamas to take up their offer to mediate between both parties to secure the release of an estimated 240 people taken hostage by Hamas last month.

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The October 7 Hamas attack left around 1,200 dead on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to the latest official Israeli figures. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says Israel’s relentless assault in retaliation has killed more than 11,300 people, also mostly civilians, including thousands of children.

The US also backed Israel’s decision to storm the hospital compound which is now home to critically ill patients, babies in need of urgent care, pregnant mothers, amputees and thousands of internally displaced refugees. The US backed Israel’s claim that the hospital is a command and control node of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

“We have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al-Shifa and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

“We have information that confirms that Hamas is using that particular hospital for a command and control node and probably storage of equipment, weapons… That is a war crime,” he said.