Israeli forces launched an offensive against Hamas in northern Gaza on Monday, according to the news agency, where they were battling militants around a hospital where thousands of patients and displaced people have been hiding for weeks, leading to another serious standoff. And Palestinian concerns about evacuating a medical facility increased. AP reported. A shell hit the second floor of an Indonesian hospital, killing at least 12 people, according to a medical worker inside the facility and the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Both of them pointed fingers towards Israeli soldiers. The Israeli military did not respond immediately.
The breakthrough came just a day after WHO evacuated 31 premature newborns from Shifa hospital. At least 28 people were transferred to Egypt on Monday. More than 250 seriously ill or injured people are still trapped in the compound, which was attacked by Israeli soldiers a few days ago.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said on Monday that he believes an agreement is near for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, news agency AFP reported.
#Breaking Biden says he believes Gaza hostage release deal is close pic.twitter.com/zpF3KLAL9W
– AFP News Agency (@AFP) 20 November 2023
The fate of Gaza’s hospitals is at the center of a narrative battle over the war’s harsh toll on Palestinians, hundreds of whom have been killed or maimed since a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, the AP reports. Has been buried in the debris. Following the attack, Israeli officials threatened to end Hamas’s ability to control Gaza and destroy its violent apparatus.
According to Israel, Hamas employs residents as human shields and has an important command center in and below Shifa. According to critics, Israel’s blockade and frequent aerial bombardment is a collective punishment for the region’s 2.3 million Palestinians.
According to Marwan Abdullah, a medical staffer at an Indonesian hospital, Israeli tanks were operating less than 200 meters (yards) from the hospital, and Israeli snipers could be seen on the rooftops of neighboring buildings. While he was talking on the phone, gunshots could be heard in the background.
According to Abdullah, a large number of people were killed and injured in airstrikes and shelling at the hospital overnight.
According to health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra, who is currently based in southern Gaza, 600 patients, 200 health care workers and 2,000 displaced persons are hiding there. “The purpose of the occupation is to evacuate the hospital, as was done in Shifa,” the AP quoted him in its report.
