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The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that the Israeli army turned the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis into a military barracks after raiding it, while the Hamas movement denied the occupation’s claims that there were prisoners being held inside the complex.
The Ministry added, in a statement, that the occupation targeted the ambulance headquarters and the tents of the displaced, and bulldozed the mass graves inside the complex.
The Ministry stated that the occupation is forcing the remaining displaced persons and the families of medical teams to forcibly move from the complex under bombardment and threats.
She confirmed that the occupation asked the administration of the Nasser Medical Complex to transfer all patients, including intensive care and nursery patients, to the old Nasser building, including 6 patients under artificial respiration.
The Ministry added that the occupation forced the complex's administration to keep intensive care patients without medical staff. This puts their lives in serious danger.
Video clips from inside Nasser Hospital showed scenes of chaos and terror. In the clips, men were walking through dark corridors using the lights of their phones, while surrounded by dust and debris scattered in the corridors, and at one point they were pushing a bed through a damaged area.
The director of the complex's surgical hospital, Dr. Nahed Abu Ta'imah, warned that the situation inside the complex is catastrophic.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Abu Ta'imah said that the complex's courtyards are under continuous Israeli bombing, and that the bombing targeted the orthopedic department. This led to the death of one of the wounded and the injury of others.
Abu Taima added that the Israeli bombing led to damage to the oxygen pumping pipes inside the hospital. This threatens the lives of patients in intensive care rooms.
Hamas responds
In turn, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said in a press statement that the storming of the occupation army and its vehicles into the Nasser Medical Complex, besieging its buildings, and forcing those in it, including medical teams, displaced, sick and wounded, to evacuate from their beds, is a continuation of the war of extermination, and a continuation of the destruction of civilian structures in Gaza Strip, and the occupation continues to challenge international laws that make hospitals protected places.
The movement added, "The policy of killing, destruction, and barbarism pursued by the fascist occupation, which the whole world is watching without any serious and effective action to stop it, despite all the calls and appeals, will not succeed in breaking the will of the Palestinian people."
She stressed that this will not push the Palestinian people to abandon their choice to reject the occupation, and to resist it by all means until its disappearance and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Occupation allegations
For his part, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the army has intelligence information indicating that Hamas has taken Israeli hostages inside Nasser Hospital, and that it is possible that there are bodies of Israeli hostages inside the hospital as well.
The Israeli army said on Thursday that it had arrested a number of suspects at Nasser Hospital and that its operations there were continuing.
The head of Hamas's political department abroad, Sami Abu Zuhri, responded, saying: "What Israel says are lies to justify its crimes of destroying hospitals, killing civilians, and all of Israel's previous claims regarding hospitals have been proven false."
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said - yesterday, Wednesday - that Israeli forces are besieging Nasser Hospital, with accusations that the facility was exposed to sniper fire, which puts the lives of doctors, patients, and thousands of displaced people at risk.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders said those ordered by Israel to evacuate the hospital faced an impossible choice between staying "and becoming a potential target" or leaving "with a horrific sight" of bombing.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies