Gaza attacks, hostage situation and more

Last week, Israeli forces launched another military operation against Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, once again targeting the huge medical center located in the north of the enclave.

Now in its 11th day, the operation is the second of its kind at the hospital in the western part of northern Gaza City. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) first raided al-Shifa in November, an operation that left the center’s main building severely damaged and almost out of service.

The raid came despite the IDF’s claim in January that it had completed the destruction of Hamas command structures in northern Gaza.

Although the IDF claimed that civilians, patients, and medical teams were cleared during the operation, Palestinians in and around al-Shifa reported civilian casualties and arrests, as well as mass destruction in the compound.

Israel, Hamas and civilians have also reported heavy fighting around the hospital, and UN officials have stressed that hospitals should not become battlefields.
This is what we know:

Why are Israeli forces attacking Al-Shifa again?

Israeli forces launched their most recent operation on March 18, saying they were conducting “precise operational activities against terrorists” based in al-Shifa, a statement also repeated in the November raid.

Despite Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Galant’s announcement in January that the most intensive phase of the operation in northern Gaza had ended, the IDF returned to al-Shifa.

On March 26, while addressing his troops in a video shared by the Defense Ministry, Gallant praised the operation, saying that the hospital had been reached “in the blink of an eye” and that Hamas activists were still trapped in the hospital. “Considering Their Future: Surrender or Die.”

The Israeli military claimed this month that, during its 11-day operation, it had detained hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants and killed dozens of them in and around the hospital.

The IDF said in an update on Wednesday that around al-Shifa “about 200 militants have been killed in the hospital area since the beginning of the activity.” The IDF also claimed that “Militants fired at IDF forces from inside and outside the Shifa Hospital emergency room building.”

CNN cannot verify these figures.

Israel has claimed for years that Hamas fighters take shelter in mosques, hospitals and other civilian spaces to escape Israeli attacks. Hamas has repeatedly denied these claims.

Israeli officials have been repeating the allegations since October 7 and, following their first raid in November, took CNN to Gaza to view the mouth of a newly discovered tunnel in the al-Shifa hospital complex.

The evidence does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there was a Hamas command center beneath the hospital, as Israel claimed.

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