Israeli Forces Drop Leaflets in Gaza, Broaden Hospital Search
Israeli forces have been reported dropping warning leaflets in parts of southern Gaza, urging the residents to evacuate. This suggests a possible expansion of the offensive in areas where hundreds of thousands of people had previously evacuated.
Soldiers continued searching Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, on Wednesday, purportedly finding guns hidden in the building. However, no evidence has been found of the central Hamas command center that Israel claims is beneath the complex.
The ongoing war, now in its sixth week, has resulted in a humanitarian crisis with over 1.5 million people displaced in Gaza, where food, water, and electricity are increasingly scarce. The war was triggered by a wide-ranging Hamas attack into southern Israel on October 7, leading to a weekslong air campaign and ground invasion of northern Gaza by Israel.
The war has inflamed tensions elsewhere as well, with gunmen shooting and wounding four people at a checkpoint on the main road linking Jerusalem to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank on Thursday.
Israeli soldiers have been storming into Gaza’s largest hospital, searching for traces of Hamas within the facility. The military claims that the weapons were found inside the hospital, but this claim has not been independently verified.
As the fighting continues, the people of Gaza are left in an increasingly dire situation, with a fuel shortage threatening to paralyze the delivery of humanitarian services and shut down mobile phone and internet service. Israel has allowed a small amount of fuel to enter Gaza for the first time since the war began, but the fuel cannot be used for hospitals or to desalinate water.