\n The Israeli army operation in Al-Shifa hospital, targeting what it says is a Hamas command centre under Gaza's biggest medical facility, on Wednesday set off a wave of international condemnation.\n<\/p>\n
\n The army had announced overnight it was carrying out \"a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area\" of the hospital where the UN estimates there are at least 2,300 patients, staff and displaced Palestinians.\n<\/p>\n
\n An official from the Hamas-run health ministry who was in the hospital told AFP he could see tanks inside the compound.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel has long accused the Islamist group of using Gaza hospitals as bases, digging tunnels under Al-Shifa and exploiting patients as human shields.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n The territory's health ministry says Israel's ensuing aerial bombardment and ground offensive have killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians and including thousands of children.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Hamas blames Biden -\n<\/p>\n
\n The Islamists said US President Joe Biden was \"wholly responsible for the assault on the Al-Shifa medical complex\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The adoption by the White House and the Pentagon of the occupation's false claim that the resistance is using the Al-Shifa medical complex for military ends has given the green light to the occupation to commit more massacres against civilians.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The Palestinian authority that runs the occupied West Bank denounced the raid as a \"flagrant violation\" of international law, demanding world action to protect patients and civilians inside the facility.\n<\/p>\n
\n - US says patients 'must be protected' -\n<\/p>\n
\n The White House renewed its concerns for the safety of civilians shortly after the raid began.\n<\/p>\n
\n The White House \"won't speak to the specifics of an ongoing Israeli military operation,\" a National Security Council spokesperson said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don't want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire,\" said the spokesperson said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Hospitals and patients must be protected.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Earlier, the White House had said 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Top UN officials says stop the 'carnage' -\n<\/p>\n
\n The United Nations humanitarian chief demanded immediate action to \"rein in the carnage\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"As the carnage in Gaza reaches new levels of horror every day, the world continues to watch in shock as hospitals come under fire, premature babies die...\"\n<\/p>\n
\n \"An entire population is deprived of the basic means of survival. This cannot be allowed to continue,\" said Martin Griffiths.\n<\/p>\n
\n Griffiths stressed in a separate video statement he understood Israel wanted to find Hamas leaders, but insisted that was no excuse for turning hospitals into a battlefield.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Hamas must not, should not, use a place like a hospital as a shield for their presence,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Red Cross and WHO voice 'extreme concern' -\n<\/p>\n
\n The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was \"extremely concerned about the impact on sick and wounded people, medical staff, and civilians\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"All measures to avoid any consequences on them must be taken,\" the ICRC said, insisting that \"patients, medical staff, and civilians must be at all times protected\".\n<\/p>\n
\n World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency had lost touch again with staff at the hospital.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We're extremely worried for their and their patients' safety.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n - Jordan calls out UN Security Council 'silence' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Jordan accused the UN Security Council of enabling the \"barbarism\" of Israel's raid on the hospital through its silence.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The catastrophe in Al-Shifa hospital shows the barbarism UNSC's silence is allowing,\" Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi wrote on X.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We condemn the silence on this brutality. It is providing cover for war crimes. It is unacceptable, unjustifiable. The Council must act.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Going too far' says Norway -\n<\/p>\n
\n \"That's going too far and cannot be accepted\", said Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide in an email to AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It aggravates an already horrible humanitarian situation in Gaza.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n bur-ybl\/bp\/yad\n<\/p>\n
\n X<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Israeli army operation in Al-Shifa hospital, targeting what it says is a Hamas command centre under Gaza's biggest medical facility, on Wednesday set off a wave of international condemnation. The army had announced overnight it was carrying out \"a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area\" of the hospital where the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-124802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n