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Al-Shifa Hospital, the latest battlefield in Gaza

2023-11-15 20:48:50, Blog CNA

Al-Shifa Hospital, the latest battlefield in Gaza

Al-Shifa Hospital, which was recently raided by Israel, is the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip.

Both Israel and the United States say that Hamas militants are using Gaza hospitals, including Al-Shifa, as command centers and to hide hostages, using underground tunnels they have built under them.

The militant group Hamas, which has controlled the coastal region since 2007, has built an entire city under Gaza that stretches for hundreds of kilometers, up to 80 meters deep in some parts, thanks to a network of underground tunnels.

Hamas, health authorities and Al-Shifa hospital leaders have denied the group is hiding military infrastructure inside or under the building and have said they would welcome an international inspection on the matter.

Shifa is a large complex of buildings and courtyards a few hundred meters from Gaza City's small fishing port, located between the refugee camp and the city's Rimal neighborhood.

Its name comes from the Arabic word "healing", a word commonly used to name hospitals in the Middle East.

As of Tuesday, the hospital is caring for 36 babies, according to medical staff, who say there is no clear mechanism to move the newborns, despite an effort by Israeli authorities to supply incubators for evacuation.

Three of the 39 premature babies died over the weekend when the hospital ran out of fuel to power the generators that kept the incubators running.

How did Al-Shifa become a hot spot of conflict?

The hospital was built in 1946 during British rule, two years before Britain withdrew from the Palestinian territories. He survived the Egyptian invasion in 1948 and two decades of military rule in that country.

In 1967, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, and in the years that followed there were regular clashes nearby, which sometimes shifted to the ground.

In 1971, the British newspaper 'Times' reported a gunfight between a Palestinian militant, who hid under a bed in the nurses' quarters, and an Israeli army patrol that was searching the hospital.

On December 9, 1987, the first day of the first uprising (Intifada in Arabic) against the Israeli occupation, during which Hamas was also formed, Al-Shifa again became the object of conflict.

The beginning of a Reuters article on that day, taken from the archive, describes the events in this way:

" An Israeli army helicopter circled three times Wednesday over Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital and then dropped a tear gas grenade into its central courtyard ."

" Palestinian hospital personnel, relatives of patients and students, scattered in panic as their eyes streamed with tears. A young man picked up the grenade and threw it into the street. "

" They are shooting from the helicopter ," someone shouted.

" It was fake news, one of dozens that circulated as teenagers armed with rocks and bottles burned barricades in the streets outside the hospital ."

In 1994, Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat's security forces honored the Palestinian flag when he was raised over the hospital, a ceremony that followed the Oslo peace accords that gave Palestinians limited autonomy in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas, an Islamist militant organization, secured a surprise victory in the 2006 elections in Gaza, capitalizing on popular discontent with corruption within the then-Palestine Authority.

The following year, Hamas took control of Gaza militarily, forcing Fatah, the secular group that had long dominated the Palestinian Authority, out of the region.

During the power struggle, until Hamas took control, fighters, both Fatah and Hamas, were treated at Al-Shifa hospital as well as other hospitals in the region, thanks to a prior understanding that neither side would to harm the wounded of the other party.

Although the Gaza Strip has been ruled by Hamas since 2006, the hospital's doctors are provided and paid for by the Palestinian Authority, which is dominated by the Fatah group, based in the West Bank.

During a 2008-2009 war that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, Israel accused Hamas of using the tunnels under Al-Shifa hospital to hide. Hamas rejected such a thing and the "Reuters" agency has not been able to verify the accusations./ VOA





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