Israel Says Hamas Tunnel Found At Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital: 10 Points

1. More than half of Gaza’s hospitals are no longer functional, due to either combat, damage, or shortages. Israel has launched a “targeted operation” in  Al-Shifa facility it accuses Hamas of using as a command centre.

2. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alleged hostages may even have been held at the Al-Shifa hospital. “We had strong indications that they were held in the Shifa Hospital, which is one of the reasons we entered the hospital,” he told “CBS Evening News”.

3. Israel said its forces were searching Al-Shifa “one building at a time,” and claimed that they found the body of a woman hostage at a building nearby. “Yehudit (Weiss) was murdered by the terrorists in the Gaza Strip and we didn’t manage to reach her in time,” spokesman Daniel Hagari told a televised briefing.

4. There has been little news on the fate of the hostages, Israelis and foreigners, some of them just infants, despite ongoing negotiations for the release of some in exchange for a pause in fighting.

5. Qatar, where Hamas has political offices, and Egypt have been mediating negotiations, which Egypt’s foreign minister described Thursday as “very delicate.”

6.  Netanyahu said Israel is doing all it can to get civilians out of harm’s way as it battles Hamas in Gaza, including dropping leaflets warning them to flee, but its attempts to minimize casualties were “not successful”. “Any civilian death is a tragedy. And we shouldn’t have any because we’re doing everything we can to get the civilians out of harm’s way, while Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm’s way,” he said. 

7. Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas in response to the group’s October 7 attack, which killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and saw about 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials. Israel’s ground operation has so far focused on the north of the Gaza Strip, though aerial bombardment and civilian deaths have continued in the south as well.

8. With international concern about the conflict growing, the UN Security Council on Wednesday passed a resolution urging “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” in fighting. Over 1.5 million people have been internally displaced, and Israel’s blockade of the territory means “civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation,” World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain said.

9. The UN warned that the communications blackout in Gaza would compound the misery of civilians, complicating efforts to distribute aid and possibly triggering looting of its supplies.

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