An IDF statement said troops “encountered explosives and terrorist squads” in the fight to enter the compound. Israel says Hamas is using the hospital’s staff and patients as a shield - a claim Hamas and medical workers at the hospital have denied.Details of the raid remain murky because of communications outages, Israeli bombardments and ground fighting.Soldiers searched and took about 100 dead bodies that had accumulated on the premises, he said. Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said operations were still ongoing on Thursday. Wednesday local time that Israeli “tanks retreated to around the hospital but that soldiers remained in the hospital. Munir al-Bursh, general director of hospitals in Gaza, told The Washington Post by phone around 7 p.m.According to the United Nations, about 700 patients were present at the hospital during the raid, as well as more than 400 medical workers and about 3,000 displaced people seeking refuge.About 18 hours after the Israel Defense Forces first warned of the raid, the military said the operation was still underway. local time Wednesday that it had begun what it called a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas” at al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical center.
The Israeli military said around 2 a.m.
