Gaza’s Shifa Hospital has become the focus of a dayslong stalemate in Israel’s war against Hamas
Wounded Palestinian children receive treatment at the al-Shifa hospital, following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. Gaza’s Shifa Hospital has become the focus of a days-long stalemate in Israel’s war against Hamas. Israel claims Hamas uses the facility for military purposes and has built a vast underground command center below the hospital. Since Israel declared war against Hamas, its forces have moved in on Shifa. But hundreds of doctors and patients remain inside. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled, File)
FILE – Wounded Palestinian children receive treatment at the al-Shifa hospital, following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. Gaza’s Shifa Hospital has become the focus of a days-long stalemate in Israel’s war against Hamas. Israel claims Hamas uses the facility for military purposes and has built a vast underground command center below the hospital. Since Israel declared war against Hamas, its forces have moved in on Shifa. But hundreds of doctors and patients remain inside. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled, File)
FILE – Wounded Palestinian children receive treatment at the al-Shifa hospital, following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. Gaza’s Shifa Hospital has become the focus of a days-long stalemate in Israel’s war against Hamas. Israel claims Hamas uses the facility for military purposes and has built a vast underground command center below the hospital. Since Israel declared war against Hamas, its forces have moved in on Shifa. But hundreds of doctors and patients remain inside. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled, File)
FILE – Wounded Palestinian children receive treatment at the al-Shifa hospital, following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. Gaza’s Shifa Hospital has become the focus of a days-long stalemate in Israel’s war against Hamas. Israel claims Hamas uses the facility for military purposes and has built a vast underground command center below the hospital. Since Israel declared war against Hamas, its forces have moved in on Shifa. But hundreds of doctors and patients remain inside. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled, File)
Gaza’s Shifa Hospital has become the focus of a dayslong stalemate in Israel’s war against Hamas
JERUSALEM — Gaza’s Shifa Hospital has become the focus of a dayslong stalemate in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group.
Shifa is Gaza’s largest and best-equipped hospital. But Israel claims the facility also is used by Hamas for military purposes. It says Hamas has built a vast underground command complex center below the hospital, connected by tunnels.
Since Israel declared war against Hamas in response to a bloody cross-border attack by the Islamic group on Oct. 7, 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. Meanwhile, doctors say the facility has run out of fuel and that patients are beginning to die.
Here is a closer look at the Shifa standoff.
