GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Nov 15, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Israeli
forces stormed Gaza's largest hospital Wednesday, targeting what they believe
is a Hamas command centre housed among thousands of ailing and sheltering
civilians.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said military operations were taking place
at Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital -- the focal point of days of deadly
fighting and nearby aerial bombardments.

Youssef Abu Rish, an official from the Hamas-run health ministry who is
inside the hospital, told AFP he could see tanks inside the complex and
"dozens of soldiers and commandos inside the emergency and reception
buildings".

The Israeli army described it as "a precise and targeted operation against
Hamas in a specified area" of the facility.

After sharp warnings from the United States and others that Al-Shifa must be
protected, Israel said the raid was being executed based on "an operational
necessity".

The United Nations has said it estimates that at least 2,300 people --
patients, staff and displaced civilians -- are inside and may be unable to
escape because of fierce fighting.

Witnesses have described conditions inside the hospital as horrific, with
medical procedures taking place without anaesthetic, families with scant food
or water living in corridors, and the stench of decomposing corpses filling
the air.

"There are bodies littered in the hospital complex and there is no longer
electricity at the morgues," hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya said
prior to the operation.

Anticipating a fierce backlash against the hospital raid, the Israeli
military said it had provided evacuation routes for civilians and given
authorities in Hamas-run Gaza 12 hours' notice that any military operation
inside must cease.

"Unfortunately, it did not," the Israeli military said, again calling on "all
Hamas terrorists present in the hospital to surrender".

The Israeli army said its ground teams included medics and Arabic speakers
"who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and
sensitive environment".

The intent was that "no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas
as human shields", it added.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to
its attacks on October 7, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, mostly
civilians, and saw 240 hostages taken to Gaza.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says Israel's ensuing aerial
bombardment and ground offensive have killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians,
including thousands of children.

- White House warnings -

The ministry's Abu Rish called on "the international community and the United
Nations to intervene immediately and urgently to stop the Israeli storming
operation".

He said that among the thousands inside the hospital were "650 ailing people
and thousands of injured people".

A journalist inside the hospital who is collaborating with AFP said Israeli
soldiers were interrogating people on Wednesday morning, among them patients
and doctors.

The White House reiterated its concerns for the safety of civilians shortly
after the raid began.

"We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don't want to see
a firefight in a hospital," a National Security Council spokesperson said.

The official added that there should not be a situation in which "innocent
people, helpless people, sick people trying to get medical care they deserve
are caught in the crossfire".

Earlier, the White House had said that US intelligence sources corroborated
Israel's claim that Hamas and another Palestinian militant group, Islamic
Jihad, had buried an operational "command and control node" under Al-Shifa.

Hamas, which has repeatedly denied the claims, on Wednesday said US President
Joe Biden was "wholly responsible" for the assault, accusing his
administration of giving Israel "the green light... to commit more massacres
against civilians".

Israel has said that the military use of the hospital "jeopardises" its
"protected status under international law", a claim that many international
human rights lawyers refute.

Citing the Hamas-run health ministry, UN humanitarian agency OCHA said 40
patients had died in Al-Shifa on Tuesday, while hospital director Abu Salmiya
said 179 bodies had been interred in a mass grave inside the complex.

- 'I was bleeding' -

The situation in Gaza's other hospitals is also dire, with the UN saying 22
of 36 are not functional due to lack of generator fuel, damage and combat.

"The 14 hospitals remaining open have barely enough supplies to sustain
critical and life-saving surgeries and provide inpatient care, including
intensive care," the WHO said.

The WHO "has warned that the evacuation of hospitals in the north, as
demanded by the Israeli military, would be a 'death sentence' for some
patients, because operational hospitals in the south cannot admit more
patients", according to an update from OCHA.

The humanitarian crisis also includes 1.5 million people who, according to
the UN, have fled southwards after Israel told them to leave the northern
half of the territory.

Even escaping the fighting is dangerous. Wounded Palestinians told AFP how
they were hit by a strike on their way south.

"I walked around three to four kilometres (around two miles) while I was
bleeding," said Hasan Baker, whose head and left hand were bandaged. "There
was no possibility for any ambulance to enter the area."

- Hostage talks -

Israeli leaders have so far rejected any calls for a ceasefire in the five-
week-old war until hostages are released.

Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas's military wing, said Monday that Israel had
asked for the release of 100 hostages, while the militants want 200
Palestinian children and 75 women freed from Israeli prisons.

"We informed the mediators we could release the hostages if we obtained five
days of truce... and passage of aid to all of our people throughout the Gaza
Strip, but the enemy is procrastinating," Abu Obeida said in an audio
statement.

Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed bin Mohammed Al-Ansari, who is
helping oversee talks on a hostage deal, said the "deteriorating" situation
in Gaza was hampering efforts to find agreement.

With pressure building on the Israeli government, Prime Minister Netanyahu
said he was "working relentlessly" to get the hostages out.

Relatives of the hostages set out Tuesday on a five-day protest march from
Tel Aviv to the prime minister's office in Jerusalem to call for the
captives' release, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.

The group later demanded the government "approve a deal tonight to bring home
all hostages from Gaza".

US President Biden voiced confidence that a deal could still happen, telling
the families of the hostages: "Hang in there. We're coming."