The Israel Defense Forces entered Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, after U.S. and Israeli intelligence indicated that Hamas terrorists operated from the medical center, and video Wednesday shows Israeli troops delivering humanitarian supplies to the area.
"Based on intelligence information and an operational necessity, IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area of the Shifa Hospital. The IDF is conducting a ground operation in Gaza to defeat Hamas and rescue our hostages," IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Wednesday.
Video also shows IDF troops placing humanitarian equipment at the hospital's entrance.
The IDF said Monday that it had delivered 300 liters of fuel outside of Al-Shifa but it remained untouched after Hamas, the internationally recognized terrorist group that governs the Gaza Strip, threatened the hospital staff.
Terrorists in the Gaza Strip still continued launching rockets at Israel on Wednesday, with a rocket landing in the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon. It is unclear whether there were any injuries as a result.
The Hamas-run Gaza Government Media Office called Israel's operation in Al-Shifa a "war crime and a crime against morality and against humanity" and said that Israel "carried out field and direct executions of many families who tried to leave Al-Shifa Hospital, killing more than 30 martyrs and dozens of others," as translated, according to Quds News, which has been strongly linked to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Hamas has been accused of using civilians as human shields and preventing them from evacuating.
The incursion into Al-Shifa comes more than a month after terrorists from the Gaza Strip invaded Israel on Oct. 7 and killed about 1,200 people and took about 240 others captive. Israel responded with rocket fire and later an invasion of the area, and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and combatant fatalities, claims more than 11,000 people have died since.
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