Israeli troops have entered Nasser Medical Complex, the hospital in southern Gaza where thousands of displaced Palestinians had been sheltering in recent days, Gaza’s health ministry and the Israeli military said on Thursday.

Ashraf al-Qudra, the health ministry’s spokesman, said in a statement that the Israeli military had demolished the complex’s southern wall and begun storming it. In a second statement, he said Israeli forces were targeting the hospital’s orthopedic department, killing one patient and injuring several others.

The Israeli military said in its own statement on Thursday morning that it was “conducting a precise and limited operation inside Nasser” against Hamas, which it accused of hiding in the hospital among wounded civilians. It said it had intelligence, including from released hostages, that Hamas had held hostages at the hospital and that bodies of hostages could be at the hospital.

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  • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    That last part isn’t always as black and white as we’d like it to be, though. When (the conventional forces of) ISIS had been surrounded in Raqqa they just bombed and shot the shit out of them, civilians be damned. Horrible, but those that decry it don’t usually offer any realistic alternative.

    • Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Here’s an alternative then:

      Israel makes an effort to provide a space away from the fighting, where civilians can live until “Hamas is destroyed”. It doesn’t even have to be outside of Gaza, but it’s arguably a better security idea to make a new camp inside Israel proper

      The IDF made a big noise about ‘defeating’ Al-Qassam in northern Gaza around Gaza City, that was an opportunity to provide a safe area.

      • Pick an open area, there’s several in the agricultural zones up north
      • Perform through search for weapons caches, tunnels, etc
      • Create tent city for displaced civilians
      • Offer safe passage (but like, actually do it this time) and as people arrive you process them for signs of terrorist activity - explosives swab tests, checked against known terrorist lists, etc

      It won’t be perfect at keeping militants OUT of the camp, but it would help keep civilians AWAY from the fighting

      • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Moving the civilians from Rafah to tent cities is exactly what Israel has proposed. But what do you do with the civilians that choose to remain?