Israeli forces entered the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City in the early hours of Monday morning, and are combing the sprawling complex, which the army says is connected to a network of tunnels used as a base for Hamas and other Palestinian fighters.
“So far, the forces have eliminated more than 170 terrorists in the hospital area, interrogated more than 800 suspects, and found many weapons and terrorist infrastructure,” the army said.
Al-Shifa Medical Complex was the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip before the war. It is now one of the few health care facilities still operating, even partially, in the northern Gaza Strip, and displaced civilians have also taken refuge there.
The army said on Thursday that more than 350 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants have been arrested so far in the hospital, the largest number arrested at the same time since the war began in October.
In the past few days, Hamas spokesmen said that the dead referred to in previous Israeli statements were not fighters, but rather sick and displaced people, and accused Israel of committing war crimes.
The Israeli army, which lost two soldiers in the fighting at the hospital, says it is preventing harm to civilians, patients and medical staff there.
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