Heavy fighting breaks out around another Gaza hospital after babies evacuated from Shifa

KHAN YUNIS – Heavy fighting erupted Monday around a hospital in northern Gaza the place hundreds of sufferers and displaced other folks had been sheltering for weeks, as Israeli forces focal point on clearing clinical amenities that they are saying Hamas militants use for protection.

A shell struck the second one ground of the Indonesian Hospital, killing a minimum of 12 other folks, in step with the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza and a clinical employee within the facility. There was once no instant remark from the Israeli army.

The advance at the Indonesian Hospital got here an afternoon after the World Health Organization evacuated 31 premature babies from Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the territory’s greatest, the place they had been amongst greater than 250 severely sick or wounded sufferers stranded there days after Israeli forces entered the compound.

The plight of Gaza’s hospitals is at the point of interest of a battle of narratives over the battle’s brutal toll on Palestinian civilians, hundreds of whom had been killed or buried in rubble because the six-week-old battle was once sparked by means of Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israel.

Israel says Hamas makes use of civilians as human shields, whilst critics say Israel’s siege and constant aerial bombardment quantity to collective punishment of the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians.

Marwan Abdallah, the clinical employee on the Indonesian Hospital, mentioned Israeli tanks had been working not up to 200 meters (yards) from the hospital, and that Israeli snipers might be noticed at the roofs of close by constructions. As he spoke over the telephone, the sound of gunfire might be heard within the background.

Abdallah mentioned the hospital had won dozens of lifeless and wounded in airstrikes and shelling in a single day. He mentioned clinical workforce and displaced other folks worry Israel will besiege the hospital and pressure its evacuation.

Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra, who’s now primarily based in southern Gaza, mentioned some 600 sufferers, 200 healthcare staff and a pair of,000 displaced other folks had been sheltering there.

BABIES EVACUATED

U.N. our bodies had been in a position to securely evacuate the babies, who were in critical condition, from Shifa to a hospital in southern Gaza, and plan to move them to a hospital in neighboring Egypt. Four different babies died within the two days sooner than the evacuation, in step with Mohamed Zaqout, the director of Gaza hospitals.

Over 250 sufferers with significantly inflamed wounds and different pressing stipulations stay in Shifa, which might now not supply maximum remedy after it ran out of water, clinical provides and gas for emergency turbines amid a territory-wide blackout. Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants out of doors its gates for days sooner than coming into the power remaining Wednesday.

Israel’s military mentioned it had robust proof supporting its claims that Hamas maintained a sprawling command post inside of and underneath the hospital’s 20-acre advanced, which contains a number of constructions, garages and a plaza.

The army launched a video appearing what it mentioned was once a tunnel came upon on the hospital, 55-meter (60-yard) lengthy and about 10 meters (33 ft) underneath floor. It mentioned the tunnel incorporated a staircase and a firing hollow which may be utilized by gunmen, and ended at a blast-proof door that troops have no longer but opened.

The Associated Press couldn’t independently check Israel’s findings, which incorporated safety digital camera video appearing what the army mentioned had been two international hostages, one Thai and one Nepalese, who had been captured by means of Hamas within the Oct. 7 assault and brought to the hospital.

The military additionally mentioned an investigation had decided that Israeli military Cpl. Noa Marciano, another captive whose frame was once recovered in Gaza, were injured in an Israeli strike on Nov. 9 that killed her captor, however was once then killed by means of a Hamas militant in Shifa.

Hamas and hospital workforce have denied the allegations of a command post underneath Shifa. Senior Hamas authentic Osama Hamdan brushed aside the most recent announcement, announcing “the Israelis mentioned there was once a command and regulate heart, because of this that the subject is larger than only a tunnel.”

THREE IN FOUR PEOPLE DISPLACED

Israel has repeatedly ordered Palestinians to leave northern Gaza and seek refuge in the south, which has also been under aerial bombardment since the start of the war. Some 1.7 million people, nearly three quarters of Gaza’s population, have been displaced, with 900,000 packing into crowded U.N.-run shelters, according to the U.N.

Doctors Without Borders, an international aid group, said 70 people were killed and at least 52 wounded, including children, in strikes in the southern town of Khan Younis on Saturday. It said it was performing 10 burn surgeries a day at the town’s overwhelmed Nasser Hospital, where hundreds of people who need such surgeries must wait for care.

More than 11,500 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza, in step with Palestinian well being government. Another 2,700 had been reported lacking, believed buried in rubble. The depend does not differentiate between civilians and opponents, and Israel says it has killed hundreds of militants.

About 1,200 other folks had been killed at the Israeli facet, principally civilians all over the Oct. 7 assault, wherein Hamas dragged some 240 captives again into Gaza. The army says 65 Israeli infantrymen had been killed in Gaza floor operations.

Hamas has released four hostages, Israel has rescued one, and the bodies of two were found near Shifa.

Israel, the United States and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas, had been negotiating a miles better hostage unlock for weeks. Israel’s three-member battle cupboard is to satisfy with representatives of the hostages’ families on Monday night time.

YEMEN REBELS SEIZE SHIP

Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized a Israeli-linked cargo ship in the southern Red Sea and took its 25 crew members hostage Sunday, raising fears that regional tensions heightened by the war were spilling into the seas. The Iran-backed rebel group said it would continue to target ships connected to Israel.

No Israelis were aboard the Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader, which was operated by a Japanese company with crewmembers from the Philippines, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Mexico. Public shipping databases associated the ship’s owners with Ray Car Carriers, a company founded by Abraham Ungar, who is known as one of the richest people in Israel.

Ungar told The Associated Press he was aware of the incident but couldn’t comment as he awaited details. A ship linked to him experienced an explosion in 2021 in the Gulf of Oman. Israeli media blamed it on Iran at the time.

The Galaxy Leader was taken to Yemen’s port city of Hodeida, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. Japanese officials were negotiating with the rebels for the release of the ship and its crew, said Japan Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed.

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Full AP protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.