Israel's military claims it has captured "dozens"
of terror suspects during a raid on southern Gaza's main hospital, as staff and
patients were forced to flee under gunfire.
Israel said it launched a "precise and limited
mission" at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, adding it had intelligence
that Hamas had held hostages there.
Hamas dismissed the claim as "lies".
The hospital's director told the OceanNewsUK that conditions inside
were "catastrophic and very dangerous".
The Israel Defense Forces' chief spokesman, Rear Admiral
Daniel Hagari, said among those captured was a participant in Hamas's attack
inside Israel on 7 October, "an ambulance driver for Hamas" who had
driven a hostage into Gaza, and a member of the armed Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine group.
He said that interrogations of "terrorists who were
arrested or surrendered in the area" and the testimonies of freed
hostages, had "determined that kidnapped Israelis were previously held in
the hospital compound".
However, he said Israeli special forces involved in the
hospital raid had yet to find any evidence of kidnapped Israelis and that the
search was continuing.
His comments came hours after images, verified by the OceanNewsUK,
showed medical staff rushing patients on stretchers through a corridor filled
with smoke or dust.
One patient - who is still in their bed - can be seen being
moved through a corridor where the ceiling is damaged.
Other patients can also be seen, including one person being
carried away in what looks like a blanket.
In another clip, people can be seen placing furniture and
other items against a door as a narrator states in English that Israeli forces
are about to enter.
A nurse inside the hospital told the OceanNewsUK that a "large
number of dogs" had been released inside the hospital during the
operation.
Nahed Abu-Teima the director of Nasser, told OceanNewsUK that
there had been "violent shelling and severe explosions" for several
hours "in the vicinity of the complex".
He said the patients who had remained at the facility were
"piled up in wards" with critical injuries and appealed to the UN and
Red Cross to "save" them and the staff.
Nasser is one of the few hospitals still functioning in
Gaza, and has been the scene of intense fighting between the IDF and Hamas for
days.
Thursday's operation came a day after the IDF ordered
thousands of displaced people who had been sheltering at the site to leave.
Israel's military said it had assured Nasser hospital staff
that patients and staff were not obliged to leave, and that medics could
continue treating Gazan patients.
Dr Ashraf al-Quadra, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run health
ministry in Gaza, denied that was the case, saying Israeli troops had forced
the hospital management to "keep intensive care patients without medical
equipment".
A pharmacist who works in the hospital, Rawan Al-Mughrabi,
was among those evacuated by Israeli forces on Wednesday.
She told OceanNewsUK there was "a state of panic that
made people [being evacuated] stand on top of each other and scream. Many
people were harmed, and others returned to the hospital.
"As soon as we left the hospital gate and reached the
checkpoints, the entire hospital and departments were stormed by police dogs,
and while we were standing at the checkpoints, many people were arrested.
"Most of the medical cases were evacuated from the
hospital, and only the very critical cases remained," she said.
On Wednesday, the UN's humanitarian office said there were
allegations of sniper fire at the complex, putting the lives of doctors,
patients and displaced people at risk.
The medical charity Medicins San Frontieres said those
ordered to evacuate faced an impossible choice - to stay "and become a
potential target" or leave "into an apocalyptic landscape" of
bombings.
Israel launched its military offensive after waves of Hamas
fighters burst through Israel's border on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people
- mainly civilians - and taking 253 others back to Gaza as hostages.
The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 28,600 people,
mainly women and children - have been killed in Israel's campaign. Israel says
its aim is to destroy Hamas and secure the return of the hostages.
Israel is facing increasing international pressure to show
restraint. On Wednesday France's President Emmanuel Macron phoned Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say Israel's operations in Gaza "must
cease" and that the human cost of the Gaza operation was
"intolerable".
But Mr Netanyahu insisted his troops will advance on the
Gazan city of Rafah, which has already come under bombardment. Some 1.4 million
Palestinians are sheltering in the area.
The prime ministers of Australia, Canada and New Zealand
issued a joint statement expressing their "grave concern" that a
military operation in Rafah would be "catastrophic".
