Jerusalem:
Israeli troops fighting in Gaza killed more than 170 gunmen during a days-long raid on the Palestinian enclave’s main hospital, the military said on Saturday.
Israeli troops entered Gaza City’s Al Shifa hospital in the early hours of Monday and have been searching the sprawling complex, which the military says is connected to a network of tunnels used as a base for Hamas and other Palestinian militants.
“So far, troops have eliminated more than 170 terrorists in the hospital area, interrogated more than 800 suspects, and seized a large amount of weapons and terrorist infrastructure,” the military said.
Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip before the war, is now one of the few even partially operational health facilities in the north of the territory and has also been housing displaced civilians.
The military said Thursday that the hospital has detained more than 350 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants so far, the highest number captured simultaneously since the war began in October.
Hamas and medical personnel deny that the hospital is used for military purposes or to harbor militants.
Recently, a Hamas spokesman stated that the dead announced in Israel’s previous statement were not combatants, but patients and displaced persons, and accused Israel of committing war crimes.
The Israeli military lost two soldiers in fighting at the hospital and said it was preventing harm to civilians, patients and medical staff there.
Reuters was unable to visit the hospital and verify either account.
Israel was heavily criticized last November when Israeli forces first attacked the hospital. Troops discovered tunnels there that they said were used by Hamas as command and control centers.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
