Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital has become the focus of a five-week-old war between the Israeli military and Hamas as thousands of people remained trapped in the largest hospital in the Palestinian territory.
Shifa is the largest and best-equipped hospital in Gaza. However, Israel claims that Hamas militants have deliberately based an operational headquarters at the facility for military purposes and built an underground tunnel complex below the hospital.
Since Israel declared war against Hamas in response to a bloody cross-border attack by the armed group last month, its forces have moved in on Shifa. While Israel says it is willing to allow staff and patients to evacuate, Palestinians say Israeli forces have fired at evacuees and that it is too dangerous to move the most vulnerable patients.
There are between 600 and 650 inpatients at al-Shifa, as well as 200 to 500 health workers, and about 1,500 displaced people seeking shelter there, according to information shared with the World Health Organization, which was posted on Sunday on X.
Meanwhile, doctors say the facility has run out of fuel and that patients are beginning to die. The World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN agencies warned that as many as 3,000 people, including 600-650 inpatients and 200-500 health workers, are sheltering inside without adequate fuel, water or food.
Here is all you need to know about the Al-Shifa Hospital and why Israeli forces have launched an operation against the hospital:
All About Al-Shifa Hospital
The Dar al-Shifa or the House of Healing hospital is a sprawling complex of medical facilities in north of Gaza. The six-storey buildings, located about 500 metres from the coast and a major north-south road, have largely collapsed after years of conflict, underfunding and an Israeli-Egyptian blockade aimed at weakening Hamas.
The hospital has boasted over 500 beds and services like MRI scans, dialysis and an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). It conducts roughly half of all the medical operations that take place in Gaza, according to Gaza Health Ministry.
After the war erupted last month, tens of thousands crammed into the hospital grounds to seek shelter. As the Israeli aggression continue in Gaza territories, the war has moved closer to the hospital, most of those huddling there have fled south.
But hundreds of people, including medical workers, premature babies and other vulnerable patients, remain, staffers say.
Supplies Running Out
The Al-Shifa hospital announced that it had run out of fuel. Health officials say at least 32 patients, including three babies, have died. They say 36 other babies are at risk of dying because life-saving equipment can’t function.
The Gaza Health Ministry released a photo on Monday showing about a dozen premature babies wrapped in blankets on a bed to keep them warm. “I hope that they will remain alive despite the disaster in which this hospital is passing through,” ministry spokesman Medhat Abbas said.
International law gives hospitals special protections during war. But hospitals can lose those protections if combatants use them to hide fighters or store weapons, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Israel is facing intense international pressure to minimise civilian suffering amid a massive air and ground operation, which has killed over 11,000 people, including 4,600 children.
What Has Israel Alleged?
Israel has long accused Hamas of using the building, patients and staff as a human shield. The group often fires rockets toward Israel from crowded residential areas, and its fighters have battled Israeli troops inside densely populated neighbourhoods.
Throughout the war, Israel has released photos and video footage showing what it says are weapons and other military installations inside or next to mosques, schools and hospitals.
Late Monday, Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, showed footage of what he said was a Hamas weapons cache found in the basement of Gaza’s Rantisi Hospital for Children. Hagari said he entered the hospital with Israeli troops on Monday, a day after the facility’s last patients were evacuated.
The hospital ran out of fuel last week, and Israel had ordered people to leave as it conducts its ground offensive.
The Israel army has claimed that Hamas is operating inside Shifa and underneath it in bunkers, some of which it says are accessible from the hospital itself. Hamas also claimed hundreds of Hamas fighters sought shelter at Shifa after the October 7 massacre, in which at least 1,200 people in Israel were killed.
Israel says these claims are based on intelligence. However, it has released little evidence to support the claims.
How Will the Standoff End?
Israel on Sunday said it had tried to deliver some 300 litres of fuel to the hospital in plastic containers several hundred meters (yards) from the facility. But as of Monday, the fuel had apparently not been taken.
Israel accused Hamas of preventing medical workers from retrieving the containers. Hospital officials said the fuel should be delivered by the Palestinian Red Crescent and that the quantity of fuel was insufficient in any case.
Israel offered safe passage for people to leave. But those who tried to go described a terrifying experience.
Goudhat Samy al-Madhoun, a health care worker, said some 50 people left the facility on Monday, including a woman who had been receiving kidney dialysis. He said Israeli forces fired on the group several times, wounding one man who had to be left behind.
US President Joe Biden on Monday said the hospital “must be protected” and called for “less intrusive action” by Israeli forces. “It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action,” Biden said in the Oval Office.
