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BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaNew Gaza hospital raid sign of Hamas capabilitiesPublished4 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsIsrael-Gaza warImage source, ReutersImage caption, The fighting in Gaza has left few safe places for PalestiniansBy Yolande Knell and Rushdi AbualoufBBC News, in Jerusalem and IstanbulFour months after Israeli troops first stormed Gaza’s biggest hospital, al-Shifa, claiming it was a cover for a Hamas command and control centre, they have returned.The Israeli military said it had “concrete intelligence” that Hamas operatives had regrouped there. Palestinians have told the BBC of their fears at being trapped in fierce battles.While this week’s raid again highlights a desperate humanitarian situation, it is also a strong reminder that Hamas is far from a spent force. Some analysts suggest it shows the desperate need for a comprehensive strategy to deal with the Islamist armed group and a clear plan on the post-war governance of Gaza.The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) now claim to have killed “over 140 terrorists” in ongoing fighting at al-Shifa and to have made some 600 arrests, including dozens of top Hamas commanders as well as some from Islamic Jihad. Two Israeli soldiers have also been killed.Israeli reports suggest that in recent weeks the army found that senior Hamas figures had resumed operations at al-Shifa and that some even took their families to the hospital. The IDF says it uncovered arms caches and a large quantity of cash at the site.Hamas has denied that its fighters were based there and claims that those killed were wounded patients and displaced people. Israeli forces raid Gaza’s al-Shifa hospitalPalestinian witnesses have told the BBC that gunfire and Israeli air strikes have been endangering patients, medics and hundreds of people still sheltering in the grounds.A local journalist has shared footage of smoke billowing from the complex.In another unverified video, shared on social media, dozens of women can be seen hunkering down in a building with their children. One says: “They took our men to an unknown place and now they’re asking women and children to leave. We don’t know where we’ll go”.In the background, an IDF officer says over loudspeaker: “Do not leave the buildings without instructions. We seek to evacuate civilians without harm, as we did in other hospitals in the past.”Since Wednesday evening, communications have been severely restricted, making it hard to contact medics and others at the scene.Image source, ReutersImage caption, The attacks on al-Shifa hospital have displaced Palestinians who were sheltering thereBack in November, there were accusations of possible violations of international law as Israeli tanks closed in on al-Shifa, in the heart of Gaza City. Premature babies were among those who died as conditions deteriorated in the besieged hospital.The IDF released surveillance camera footage which showed two hostages snatched from Israel being taken into the hospital. After an extensive search, Israeli troops blew up a large tunnel with rooms which ran under the site and later withdrew.The Israeli army went on to suggest that Hamas’s regional brigades and battalions in the north of the Gaza Strip had been disbanded. But soon reports emerged that small cells were regrouping.While Hamas has undoubtedly been severely weakened by the war, there have since been signs that it has been trying to restore its governing capability, including through policing and with some possible involvement in aid distribution.Washington has indicated that Israel’s renewed military action at al-Shifa Hospital illustrates its worry that its close ally does not have an adequate strategy to dismantle the organisation.”Israel cleared Shifa once. Hamas came back into Shifa, which raises questions about how to ensure a sustainable campaign against Hamas so that it cannot regenerate, cannot retake territory,” the US National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, said this week.The US has been pressing Israel to come up with a feasible alternative for Hamas rule in Gaza. Its plan has been to promote individuals linked to the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority (PA) and to work with Arab states to prevent a power vacuum.Blinken in Middle East to discuss post-war GazaIsrael previously said it was seeking to cooperate with clan leaders in Gaza without affiliation to the PA or Hamas.Now, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Israeli security officials are “quietly developing a plan to distribute aid”, working with Palestinian leaders and businessmen not linked to Hamas. The suggestion is that this “could eventually create a Palestinian-led governing authority”.Israeli media have suggested the operation at Shifa Hospital could last for several days. It is not being linked to the military operation in Rafah which Israel insists it must carry out to win the war with Hamas.There has been international concern over the impact such an offensive on the Egypt border could have as more than half of the 2.3m residents of Gaza are now displaced there.”It’s going to happen. And it will happen even if Israel is forced to fight alone,” the Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister, Ron Dermer, told the Call Me Back with Dan Senor podcast.While the IDF has formulated operational plans for Rafah and handed these to Israel’s government, no order has yet been given to execute them. It is seen as unlikely that such a move will take place during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ends around 9 April. It would also take time for Israel to build up the necessary forces in Gaza.Despite declarations to the contrary, Israeli experts also believe that in order for a Rafah operation to be effective, ultimately coordination will be needed with Egypt and the US.”The Egyptians are on the other side of the border,” pointed out retired General Amos Gilad on Israel’s Kan Radio. “You can’t do anything in Rafah without coordinating with the Egyptians and the Americans.”Related TopicsMiddle EastIsrael & the PalestiniansIsrael-Gaza warIsraelPalestinian territoriesGazaHamasMore on this storyBlinken in Middle East to discuss post-war GazaPublished1 day agoTrapped by gunfire, people risked death to help injuredPublished7 days agoTop StoriesUS accuses Apple of monopolising smartphone marketPublished5 minutes agoCalls for higher payout from women hit by pension age risePublished3 hours agoWoman who ended life at Dignitas calls for assisted dying law changePublished3 hours agoFeatures’I want the £45,000 state pension that was stolen from me’A museum tried reverse misogyny. 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[ad_1] “Israel cleared Shifa once. Hamas came back into Shifa, which raises questions about how to ensure a sustainable campaign against Hamas so that it cannot regenerate, cannot retake territory,”…
![BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaGaza residents surviving off animal feed and rice as food dwindlesPublished2 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsIsrael-Gaza warImage source, ReutersImage caption, Pipes which carry water for Gaza’s 2.3m population have been damaged or destroyedBy Lucy WilliamsonBBC News, JerusalemPeople living in the isolated north of Gaza have told the BBC that children are going without food for days, as aid convoys are increasingly denied permits to enter. Some residents have resorted to grinding animal feed into flour to survive, but even stocks of those grains are now dwindling, they say.People have also described digging down into the soil to access water pipes, for drinking and washing.The UN has warned that acute malnutrition among young children in the north has risen sharply, and is now above the critical threshold of 15%.The UN’s humanitarian coordination agency, Ocha, says more than half the aid missions to the north of Gaza were denied access last month, and that there is increasing interference from Israeli forces in how and where aid is delivered.It says 300,000 people estimated to be living in northern areas are largely cut off from assistance, and face a growing risk of famine.A spokesman for the Israeli military agency tasked with coordinating aid access in Gaza said in a briefing last month that there was “no starvation in Gaza. Period.” The agency, Cogat, has repeatedly said it does not limit the amount of humanitarian aid sent to Gaza.Netanyahu orders military to plan evacuations from southern Gazan cityIsraeli soldier videos from Gaza could breach international law, experts sayThe BBC spoke to three people living in Gaza City and Beit Lahia, and viewed footage and interviews filmed by local journalists in Jabalia.Mahmoud Shalabi, a local medical aid worker in Beit Lahia, said people had been grinding grains used for animal feed into flour, but that even that was now running out.”People are not finding it in the market,” he said. “It’s unavailable nowadays in the north of Gaza, and Gaza City.”He also said stocks of tinned food were disappearing.”What we had was actually from the six or seven days of truce [in November], and whatever aid was allowed into the north of Gaza has actually been consumed by now. What people are eating right now is basically rice, and only rice.”The World Food Programme (WFP) told the BBC this week that four out of the last five aid convoys into the north had been stopped by Israeli forces, meaning a gap of two weeks between deliveries to Gaza City.’Serious risk of famine'”We know there is a very serious risk of famine in Gaza if we don’t provide very significant volumes of food assistance on a regular basis,” said the WFP regional chief, Matt Hollingworth.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said there had been a sharp increase in the number of aid missions denied access to northern Gaza: with 56% of deliveries denied access in January, up from 14% in October to December.It also said the Israeli military “at times required justifications” for quantities of fuel destined for health facilities, and “imposed reductions on the volume of assistance, such as the quantity of food”.The BBC asked Israel’s army for a response. They directed us to Cogat, which told us to address our questions to the army.Duha al-Khalidi, a mother of four in Beit Lahia, told the BBC two weeks ago that she walked six miles (9.5km) to her sister’s house in Gaza City, in a desperate search for food, after her children had not eaten for three days.”I don’t have any money, and even if I did, there’s nothing in the town’s main market,” she said. “[My sister] and her family are also suffering. She shared with me the last amount of pasta in her house.””We feel that death has become inevitable,” her sister, Waad, said. “We lost the top floor of our house, but we are still living here despite the fear of collapse. For two weeks, we can’t find anything in the market; and if some products are available, they are 10 times their normal price.”A famine risk assessment, carried out by several UN agencies, estimated that almost a third of residents in northern areas could now be facing a “catastrophic” lack of food, though restrictions on accessing the area make real-time measurements very difficult.Families in northern areas are also struggling to find reliable water supplies.”Many of us are now drinking unpotable water. There are no pipes; we have to dig for water,” explained Mahmoud Salah in Beit Lahia. Image source, ReutersImage caption, People in Gaza are digging for water by handVideo filmed in the Jabalia neighbourhood north of Gaza City shows residents sitting among the rubble of bombed out streets, digging down into the earth to tap large underground water pipes.”We get water here once every 15 days,” Yusuf al-Ayoti said. “The water is dirty. Our children are inflamed and their teeth are eroded from the dirty water. There is sand in it, and it’s very salty.”After four months of war, the makeshift solutions for bridging the hunger gaps are wearing thin. And there are few ways to restock Gaza’s larder.The territory was reliant on food aid before the war; now much of its agricultural industry has been ruined or abandoned.’The destruction is vast’New figures from the UN suggest that more than half the agricultural land in the central region of Deir al-Balah has been damaged. This includes an olive press and farmland belonging to Bassem Younis Abu Zayed.”It looks like the aftermath of an earthquake,” he said. “The destruction is vast, covering neighbouring buildings and farm animals. Even if we manage to restore the mill, 80-90% of the olives have gone. It’s not just a loss for this year, it’s a loss for the next several years.”Further south, in the border town of Rafah, more than a million people displaced by the fighting elsewhere now jostle for space with the town’s 300,000 residents.Israel’s army regularly publishes what it says is recent footage of busy markets and restaurants in Gaza’s southern centres. A majority of the 114 aid missions to southern areas of Gaza managed to get through last month, but residents and aid agencies say many people are still going hungry, and a public health crisis is looming with a lack of shelter, sanitation and medical care.Aid can be blocked by fighting, bureaucracy or rubble. Earlier this week, a food convoy waiting to head north in Gaza was hit by naval gunfire. On Saturday the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees accused Israel of using financial restrictions to block a month’s worth of food for more than a million Gazans. UNRWA said more than 1,000 shipping containers from Turkey were being held up in a port, telling the AP news agency that a local contractor was ordered by customs authorities not to process any UNRWA goods.Israel has not responded but on Thursday, far-right finance minister Belazel Smotrich ordered the cancellation of customs and other tax relief for UNRWA, saying Israel “will not give tax benefits to terrorist aides”. Israel has accused UNRWA staff of participating in the 7 October attacks.But deliveries are also complicated by the growing desperation of Gaza’s people, says Matt Hollingworth.”We need the law and order issue resolved, so that we’re not having to negotiate our way through crowds of desperately hungry people, to get to other people that we’ve yet to reach,” he said.”It’s probably the level of helplessness that worries me. People have lost hope.” A deal between Israel and Hamas is seen by many as the only way to get more aid into Gaza, and get Israeli hostages out.As Israel bombs Rafah, ahead of a widely expected ground offensive there, leaders on both sides are under pressure to end the suffering of people trapped in Gaza – their enemy’s, and their own.Related TopicsIsrael & the PalestiniansIsrael-Gaza warHamasMore on this storyInjured, hungry and alone – the Gazan children orphaned by warPublished31 JanuaryWhy are Israel and Hamas fighting in Gaza?Published31 January’The unstoppable wars have destroyed our lives’Published20 January’I go to sleep a dead man’ – father’s pain at daughter’s captivity in GazaPublished23 JanuaryTop StoriesSix-year-old Gazan girl found dead days after plea for helpPublished8 hours agoPolice searching Thames for Clapham attack suspectPublished4 hours agoAre politicians cooling on tackling climate change?Published4 hours agoFeaturesIsraeli soldier videos from Gaza could breach international law, experts sayWill King’s diagnosis bring Harry and William closer?Are politicians cooling on tackling climate change?The Ukrainians ‘disappearing’ in Russia’s prisonsDinosaur Island: 40 years of discoveries on SkyeCelebrities and the perils of oversharing daily routinesWhy are attitudes shifting towards climate policies? 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