Fire, killing, and siege an attack on Al-Shifa Medical Complex and appeals to stop the massacre

A number of Palestinians were killed and injured by occupation forces' fire inside the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, after storming it amid heavy gunfire. A fire broke out at the gate of the complex, causing suffocation among the trapped displaced women and children. This coincides with continuous bombing in various areas of the Gaza Strip.

At dawn on Monday, Israeli army forces stormed the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, west of Gaza City, amid heavy gunfire and the flight of drones, which led to a number of martyrs and wounded.

Anadolu correspondent, quoting eyewitnesses, reported that Israeli tanks and military vehicles suddenly, under heavy fire cover, entered areas west of Gaza City and surrounded the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, which contains thousands of displaced, sick and wounded people, and targeted parts of it with artillery shells and drones.

Witnesses reported that a number of displaced people were able to leave the hospital before Israeli forces stormed it and opened fire inside. They pointed out that a large number of drones accompanied the storming of the hospital.

According to witnesses, the targeting of the hospital by Israeli forces and shooting inside it resulted in the death and injury of a number of displaced people, and the bodies of the martyrs are still in the courtyards of the hospital and the roads surrounding it.

For its part, Palestinian media said that occupation gunboats fired artillery shells in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, west of Gaza City, amid fierce clashes between the resistance and the occupation forces.

Eyewitnesses confirmed that there was an air strike on the Al-Rimal neighborhood, where the hospital is located, and the presence of Israeli tanks surrounding the building.

The government media office in Gaza explained that Al-Shifa Hospital was being “bombed,” noting that “tens of thousands of displaced people” were in the building.

The government media office said in a press statement: “The Israeli occupation army stormed the Al-Shifa Medical Complex with tanks, heavily armed soldiers, and drones, from the early hours of dawn, and the occupation began shooting inside the complex, which sparked fear and panic among the wounded, sick, and displaced.”

He warned that the invasion of the occupation army "threatens the lives of thousands of people inside the Shifa Medical Complex, in a war crime added to the black record of the occupation army, which is still committing various crimes and massacres."

The government media office held "the Israeli occupation, the American administration, and the international community fully responsible for the safety and lives of the medical staff, the wounded, the sick, and the displaced among our Palestinian people."

Martyrs, wounded, and displaced people are trapped

At dawn on Monday, the Israeli occupation army announced that it was carrying out an operation targeting Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The statement indicated that soldiers are “currently carrying out a precise operation in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital,” claiming that the operation is based on information indicating that the hospital is being used by senior Hamas officials.

The official Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported that the occupation army confirmed that its forces had stormed Al-Shifa Hospital, west of Gaza City, and announced the start of a military operation there, claiming that intelligence information about its exploitation had been received from Hamas officials.

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip denied the Israeli occupation’s allegations, and said in a press statement, “The occupation is still using its fabricated narratives to deceive the world and to justify the storming of the Shifa Medical Complex.”

The Ministry explained that the Israeli military attack aims to continue destroying the health system in northern Gaza, calling on the international community to reject the occupation’s practices against Al-Shifa Medical Complex and Gaza’s hospitals.

On Monday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza appealed to all international institutions to stop the ongoing Israeli massacre against the sick, wounded, displaced, and medical staff inside the Shifa Medical Complex.

The Ministry stated that a fire broke out at the gate of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, and there were cases of suffocation among displaced women and children in the hospital and communications were cut off.

She added that the displaced people are trapped inside the specialized surgery building and in the emergency reception in Building 8.

It pointed to the fall of a number of martyrs and wounded, with the inability to save any of the injured due to the intensity of the fire and the targeting of anyone who approached the windows.

Arrests and orders for residents of Al-Rimal neighborhood and Al-Shifa complex to leave

On Monday, the occupation army informed residents and displaced people in the Al-Rimal neighborhood and Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City of the need to leave “immediately” to the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraee said in a post on the X platform: “To all those present and displaced in the Al-Rimal neighborhood and in Al-Shifa Hospital and its surroundings.” You must evacuate the area immediately to the west, then cross Al-Rashid (Al-Bahr) Street south to the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi.”

The occupation forces surrounded two schools in the vicinity of Al-Shifa, and arrested the displaced men after storming the American School near Al-Shifa Complex, and asked the women to go to Deir Al-Balah via Al-Rashid Street.

Israeli Channel 12 quoted sources in the Israeli occupation army as saying that it had tightened its control over the Shifa Medical Complex and arrested 80 people it described as “saboteurs” from the hospital.

Demands to protect the remaining hospitals

For its part, the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, in a statement on Monday, called on the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Health Organization to fulfill their responsibilities to protect the remaining medical facilities in Gaza.

Hamas said, "The crimes of the occupation and the ongoing war of extermination against our people and all components of life in Gaza will not create any image of victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his army. Rather, they are an expression of the state of confusion, confusion, and loss of hope in achieving any military achievement other than targeting defenseless civilians."

She added: "The failure of the international community and the United Nations to take action against the occupation army was a green light to continue the war of genocide and ethnic cleansing that it is committing against our people, one of the pillars of which is the destruction of medical facilities in the Gaza Strip."

She concluded her statement by calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, and other relevant international institutions to fulfill their responsibilities to protect the remaining medical facilities in the Strip, and to document the crimes of the Zionists against the medical sector, which is protected under the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law.

This is the second time that Israeli forces have stormed the Al-Shifa Medical Complex since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip on October 7. They stormed it for the first time on November 16 after besieging it for at least a week.

Then, Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital on November 24, after destroying its courtyards, parts of its buildings, medical equipment and equipment, in addition to the hospital’s electricity generator.

Continuous bombing

Meanwhile, 9 Palestinians were martyred and a number of others were injured in an Israeli bombing, at dawn on Monday, that targeted a house for the Abu Hujair family, west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes also bombed a house for the Felfel family in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City.

Israeli drones opened fire on anyone moving in the Al-Rimal neighborhood in the center of Gaza City, and asked residents to remain in their homes. This was confirmed by Al-Aqsa satellite channel, which said that a violent Israeli air strike targeted the Al-Rimal neighborhood in the center of Gaza City.

The death toll from the ongoing Israeli war against the Gaza Strip has risen to “31,726 martyrs and 73,792 injured” since last October 7.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip said in a statement on Monday: “In conjunction with the 164th day of the war, the Israeli occupation forces committed 8 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, of which 81 martyrs and 116 wounded arrived at hospitals during the past 24 hours.”

She pointed out that "there are still a number of victims under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them."