Israel-Hamas LIVE: Israeli soldiers storm Gaza’s al Shifa hospital in ‘targeted operation’ to root out Hamas terrorists as doctors inside describe ‘terrifying’ situation for trapped patients

More details now on the news that a fuel truck entered Gaza through the Rafah border today – the first such delivery since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7.

• An Egyptian source told state-aligned Al Qahera News the fuel would be delivered to the United Nations ‘to facilitate the delivery of aid after trucks on the Palestinian side stopped operating for lack of fuel’.
• COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that handles Palestinian civil affairs, had said earlier that ‘UN trucks transporting humanitarian aid through the Rafah crossing will be refuelled at the Rafah crossing, per US request.’
• Witnesses at the Egyptian border said two more trucks were waiting to pass through the crossing.

The United Nations children’s agency says its top official visited the Gaza Strip early Wednesday and met with children and their families in the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the south of the territory.

‘What I saw and heard was devastating. They have endured repeated bombardment, loss and displacement,’ UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said. ‘Inside the Strip, there is nowhere safe for Gaza’s one million children to turn.’

She added: ‘The parties to the conflict are committing grave violations against children; these include killing, maiming, abductions, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access – all of which UNICEF condemns.

‘I am here to do whatever I can to advocate for the protection of children. I once again call on all parties to ensure that children are protected and assisted, as per international humanitarian law. Only the parties to the conflict can truly stop this horror.’

The first fuel truck has entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt via the Rafah border, according to Egyptian media.

• It comes after Israeli defense officials said they have agreed to allow fuel shipments into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian operations.
• It is the first time that Israel has allowed fuel into the besieged territory since the Hamas militant group’s bloody cross-border invasion on October 7.
• Israel declared war and barred fuel shipments after the attack, saying Hamas would divert supplies for military use. But fuel is key to operations at Gaza hospitals, which run on generators, and the shortages hindered the United Nations from delivering humanitarian aid.

This is a breaking news update, more details to follow…

Israeli forces are now massed near the gates of Gaza City’s main hospital, ready to storm the labyrinth of tunnels they say are underneath the medical centre where Hamas terrorists lie in wait.

Their aim is to enter the 300 mile network of tunnels that are below the Al-Shifa hospital and Gaza City as a whole and annihilate the terrorists who rampaged through Israel and slaughtered 1,200 Israelis.

But that is no easy task. Subterranean fighting is notoriously lethal work, especially when Israeli soldiers are fighting against heavily armed Hamas terrorists who know every hiding place and have access to a stash of rockets, grenades and guns.

The terrorists have operated within the complex network of reinforced tunnels underneath civilian buildings for years, some of which are buried up to 40ft underground and all of which could conceal an ambush, be booby-trapped – or worse – filled with explosives and primed to cave in.

This means the Israeli military will have to draw on a variety of technology and weaponry – like ‘killer’ drones, attack dogs and ‘sponge’ bombs – to help their soldiers ‘destroy’ the terrorists deep within the tunnels.

Israeli forces raided Gaza’s largest hospital Wednesday, targeting what they say is a Hamas command centre in tunnels beneath thousands of patients and civilians seeking refuge from intense combat.

• Dozens of Israeli soldiers, some wearing face masks and shooting in the air, ordered young men to surrender, a journalist in contact with AFP said, as the army reported it conducted a ‘precise and targeted’ operation at the facility.
• Youssef Abu Rish, an official from the Hamas-run health ministry who was in the hospital, told AFP he could see tanks inside the complex and ‘dozens of soldiers and commandos inside the emergency and reception buildings’.
• The Israeli army described it as ‘a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area’ of the facility. The Palestinian militants have repeatedly denied concealing a base at the hospital.
• After sharp warnings from the United States and others that Al-Shifa must be protected, Israel said the raid was being executed based on ‘an operational necessity’.

Israeli tanks have rolled into the al Shifa hospital compound while scores of soldiers stormed buildings including the emergency and surgery departments, which house intensive care units, as patients screamed in terror as part of their mission to root out the terrorists, medics trapped inside said.

Mohammed Zaqout, the director of hospitals in Gaza, said the patients who are trapped inside the medical facility are terrified after they saw the heavily armed soldiers storm the hospital in the early hours of this morning.

‘They are screaming, it’s a very terrifying situation. We can do nothing but pray,’ Zaquot said.

Israeli soldiers have stormed Gaza City’s main hospital to root out the Hamas terrorists US intelligence has said are hiding in underground command centre as Palestinian authorities have called for a ceasefire to evacuate trapped civilians.

The Israeli military entered the sprawling Al-Shifa hospital early Wednesday morning in a ‘precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area’ of the facility, the IDF said, in what could be a pivotal moment in the bloody war.

Israeli soldiers and tanks had surrounded the hospital in recent days, where the IDF and US have insisted Hamas are hiding in underground tunnels beneath the building and using the patients as human shields – claims the terrorists deny.

But the storming of the hospital is a key moment in the war and will show once and for all whether Hamas terrorists have indeed based their secret headquarters underneath the hospital while using the most vulnerable civilians as human shields.

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