GAZA: Israeli forces have made arrests at Gaza’s largest functioning hospital, said the health officials and the military on Saturday, as planes hit across the enclave and rain battered Palestinians taking shelter in Rafah.
Earlier, the Israeli military raided the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis as they pressed their war on Gaza enclave.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said that the occupation forces had detained a large number of medical staff members inside Nasser Medical Complex, which they turned into a military base.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister has pledged to push on with the military campaign and said troops would move into the southern border city of Rafah.
The Israeli forces said they were hunting for militants in Nasser Medical Complex and had so far arrested 100 suspects on the premises. A gunmen was killed near the hospital and weapons found inside the hospital, they added.
Meanwhile, Hamas has denied allegations its fighters use hospitals for cover in the area. The incursion of Israeli forces into the hospital has raised alarm about patients, medical workers and displaced Palestinians sheltering there.
Earlier this week, around 10,000 people were seeking shelter at the hospital. However, many left either in anticipation of the Israeli raid or because of Israeli orders to evacuate, the Health Ministry of Gaza said.
The winter cold added to already dire conditions in further south in Rafah, providing shelter to more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.
