The Palestinian health ministry has accused the Israeli military of desecrating dead bodies and shooting civilians in a hospital it said had been used as a “command center” by Hamas.
Israel released security camera footage on Saturday which it said showed Hamas fighters inside the south Gaza hospital of Al-Aqsa, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later claimed that it was a “command center for the terrorist organization”.
Hours later, the Palestinian Health Ministry accused the Israeli forces of shooting and killing six people, and desecrating the bodies of dead fighters in the hospital corridors.
The ministry also accused the Israeli army of stopping ambulances from arriving at the hospital, and said that the medical staff had been evacuated.
No independent confirmation of the Palestinian account could be obtained. But the Israeli military said that an overnight operation had “targeted terrorist sites in a hospital in central Gaza that uninvolved civilians were notified to vacate prior to the operation.”
The Israeli military said that no civilians were shot by Israeli forces at the hospital, and that all of the buildings hit by Israeli forces belonged to Hamas. Both Hamas and the Israeli military have accused each other of deliberately targeting civilian sites in the conflict.
The Palestinian Health Ministry strongly denied that the hospital had been used as a “command center” and accused the Israeli military of desecrating the bodies of deceased militants and shooting civilians, without providing any evidence.