This handout picture released by the Israeli army on Nov. 15, 2023, shows soldiers during a military operation at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. (Credit: IDF via AFP)
At 2:04 a.m. Wednesday morning, the Israeli army announced that it was carrying out “a precise and targeted operation against Hamas” in a “specified area” in al-Shifa Hospital.
Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati spoke to Reuters from within the hospital, recounting the night's events. “One of the big tanks entered within the hospital from the eastern main gate, and they just parked in the front of the hospital emergency department." The Israeli army said in a statement that “as the soldiers entered the hospital complex, they engaged with a number of terrorists and killed them.”
Sources from inside the hospital who spoke to BBC and Al Jazeera described a scene in which Israeli soldiers announced over loudspeakers an order for all men between the ages of 16 and 40 to leave the hospital buildings and go into the courtyard. Patients, women, and healthcare workers were told to stay indoors. Both media outlets reported that those who entered the courtyard were ordered to remove their clothing, after which they were blindfolded and interrogated. The BBC added that it could not independently verify the details of these events. Witnesses told the BBC that about 200 people were taken away from the hospital grounds — it is not known where they were taken to.
Witnesses speaking to Reuters said Israeli troops moved throughout the hospital searching rooms and basements. They could hear sporadic shooting. Photos show ransacked hospital rooms and troops moving through the encampments outside the buildings. Mokhallalati said that "all kinds of weapons were used around the hospital," and that the army "targeted the hospital directly.” He described a large hole that had been blasted through the wall of an outpatient building.
The Israeli army claims to have delivered incubators, medicine, and baby food. The BBC’s contact said some soldiers were giving water to the elderly. The Israeli army released a photo with a soldier posing beside boxes labeled “medicine” and “baby food.” There are several reports that the hospital's medicine warehouse was destroyed during the raid. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Sunday that critical infrastructure, including the oxygen station, was damaged. The hospital has been without power since Saturday. That same day, Director-General of al-Shifa Hospital Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera that two out of 39 premature babies who require intensive care had died “because of the power outage.” The Guardian reported on Monday that with no oxygen supplies or power for incubators, nurses had been “attempting to provide what care they could” for the newborns.
As of the publication of this article, the Israeli army is still in control of the compound, but reports are coming in that they have withdrawn from the buildings themselves and are stationed at the gates. Salmiya told BBC Arabic that he can “still see lots of tanks at the gates of the hospital,” and can only confirm that soldiers withdrew from the hospital's specialty surgery building. Salmiya accused the troops of damaging specialist medical equipment during the raid, a significant loss for a healthcare system already buckling at the knees.
Just after 8 p.m. Beirut time on Wednesday evening, the Israeli army released information of what they claim to have found in a clinic in the al-Shifa Hospital compound. In a video released on their official Telegram account, Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli army spokesperson, says the army uncovered a bullet proof vest which purportedly has a label with writing on it belonging to Hamas’ military wing, a technical radio, CDs, and a laptop “which at first glance already provides a lot of incriminating evidence,” he tells the camera. In a separate edited video shared on Israeli Army spokesperson Daniel Hagari’s X account, the Israeli army shows a number of AK47 rifles laid out on the floor and a photo shows a number of grenades laid out on a table.
The Hamas representative in Lebanon, Ahmad Abdel Hadi, told the Lebanese Hezbollah-affiliated al-Mayadeen channel that these discoveries at the al-Shifa Hospital are an "imaginary accomplishment." He added that “the enemy will fail on the ground and under humanitarian pressure,” and accused the United States of having given Israel a "green light" to attack the hospital. The US, in their turn, denies this, saying that Israel’s operations are their own.