The Israeli military says it wants to expand an operation to evacuate the largest clinic in the Gaza Strip. This was done at the request of the director of the Shifa Hospital in Gaza, the military said. At the same time, the army emphasized that it had never ordered the evacuation of patients or medical personnel.
The aim is to enable other people who sought protection in the clinic to “do so safely”. Eyewitnesses in the Gaza Strip confirmed to the German Press Agency that people were leaving the clinic premises.
The military said it also offered to enable the evacuation of patients. Medical staff will remain at the hospital to care for patients who cannot leave the clinic, it said.
Army again calls for people to leave several city districts
The Israeli army also once again called on residents of several neighborhoods in the embattled city of Gaza to evacuate. For their own safety, residents should flee the neighborhoods in the northern Gaza Strip to the south by 4 p.m. local time (3 p.m. CET), an army spokesman wrote in Arabic on the X platform, formerly Twitter.
Residents of the refugee district of Jabalia were also called to evacuate. Civilians who were prevented from fleeing by the terrorist organization Hamas could contact the Israeli army by telephone or via the Telegram platform, it said.
Netanyahu: Hamas headquarters found under clinic
According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli soldiers discovered an underground Hamas headquarters beneath the clinic.
The armed forces had found a command and control center in the second basement of Shifa Hospital, he told US radio station NPR. Terrorists fled the clinic before the soldiers arrived. The army also discovered weapons and bombs there.
The Israeli army had previously announced that it had also found command and control centers during its operation in the hospital. It was initially unclear whether this was also the Hamas command center suspected to be under the hospital. Hamas denies the existence of such a base beneath the clinic.
Israeli army spokesman: Hamas spread across hospitals
The Israeli military justified its controversial actions in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in many Palestinian victims, with the structure of Hamas and its “small terror centers” in civilian facilities. For example, in a hospital complex of several dozen buildings, two or three are used as terror centers, spread over several floors “and then of course underground,” army spokesman Arye Shalicar described the situation in the ZDF “heute journal”. “And of course not in one hospital, but in many hospitals.”
In the past few weeks, around 10,000 rockets have been fired at Israel from the coastal area. “Where were these rockets fired from? There is not a single military barracks in the Gaza Strip,” Shalicar said. The projectiles continue to be fired from civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, mosques and schools. “If they fired rockets from military barracks, Hamas would be destroyed in a day.” The responsibility for civilian casualties therefore lies solely with the terrorist organization, said Shalicar.
Doctors Without Borders: Employees are stuck at the Schifa Clinic
According to the aid organization, Doctors Without Borders employees and their relatives are trapped near the Shifa hospital. In total, there are 137 people, including 65 children, who are unable to leave the area safely due to the ongoing heavy fighting in the city of Gaza, the organization said. Previous attempts to evacuate the employees and their families have failed.
Israel’s military: weapons found in kindergarten in Gaza
The Israeli armed forces said they found weapons and ammunition in a kindergarten and a primary school in the Gaza Strip. During the operation in the north of the sealed-off coastal strip, anti-tank rifles, mortar shells and other weapons were seized, the military said on the news platform X, formerly Twitter.
“Kindergartens should keep toys, not deadly weapons,” the statement said. A stack of mortar grenades could be seen in one video, and several anti-tank rifles, assault rifles, ammunition and hand grenades in a photo.
Netanyahu: Maintain “overall military responsibility” for Gaza
In order to prevent a resurgence of terrorists, after the war in the Gaza Strip, “overall military responsibility” for the Palestinian coastal area must rest with Israel for the foreseeable future, Netanyahu said on US radio station NPR.
However, he does not think it is absolutely necessary to keep soldiers there. A civilian government is also needed in the Gaza Strip. But it must fight terrorism and should not speak out in favor of the destruction of Israel.
Israel’s military: “terrorists” killed in operation in the West Bank
Israel’s army says it has killed “several terrorists” in a refugee camp in the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. The military announced on Saturday that an aircraft attacked their hiding place during the operation in Balata. According to Palestinian sources, five men were killed in the Israeli army’s drone strike on Saturday night. According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, two people were also injured.
According to the army, the killed Palestinians were planning attacks against Israeli civilians and military targets. One of the dead had already been involved in attacks in the past.
Bahrain calls for prisoner exchange
The Gulf state of Bahrain called on Israel and the Islamist Hamas to exchange prisoners. Hamas should immediately release the children and women kidnapped from Israel, demanded Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa. He does not believe that any Arab leader has yet asked Hamas to do this. It is therefore time for clear words.
At the same time, the Crown Prince demanded that Israel release female and minor Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons. This is necessary to end the conflict and the “intolerable situation” in the Gaza Strip. At the same time, Bahrain’s prime minister strongly condemned the “barbaric” attacks on October 7th and the air strikes on the Gaza Strip, which led to the deaths of thousands.
Iranian politician warns against involvement in Gaza war
An influential politician in Tehran is warning of Iranian involvement in the Gaza war between Israel and the Islamist Hamas. “Those in Iran who want to go to war in Gaza should know that this is exactly what the Zionist regime (Israel) wants,” said Gholam-Hussein Hadad-Adel, a member of the so-called Arbitration Council, according to the daily Etemad. Iran’s involvement in the conflict would lead to a war between Iran and the US, he warned. “In that case they (Israel) would be on the safe side.”
Hadad-Adel is a member of the country’s ultra-conservative faction and is considered a close confidant of Iran’s religious leader Ali Khamenei. Therefore, his statements are generally in line with the positions of Khamenei, who, according to the constitution, has the final say on all strategic matters
More shelling on the border between Lebanon and Israel
Mutual shelling broke out again on the border between Israel and Lebanon. Israeli artillery attacked “terrorist targets” in Lebanon, the military said. It was said that 25 rocket launches had previously been registered from Lebanon towards Israel. There were initially no reports of injuries in northern Israel. The pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia in Lebanon said it had targeted Israeli troops and other military positions.
