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The Israeli military said it is conducting a raid inside Gaza’s biggest hospital Al-Shifa as it targets Hamas militants it claims are operating beneath the structure — which the militant group and hospital officials deny.
Thousands of Palestinians are believed to be sheltering in and around the hospital, where conditions have rapidly deteriorated with doctors working by candlelight and wrapping premature babies in foil to keep them alive.
Here’s what we know so far:
The raid: On early Wednesday morning, local time, the Israeli military said it was “carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa Hospital” in Gaza.
Hospitals are protected in times of war under international humanitarian law, but Israel said in a statement that Hamas’s “continued military use of the Shifa hospital jeopardizes its protected status.”
Israel believes it has given Hamas operatives sufficient time to cease their alleged activities inside the building, according to the statement.
