According to the military, Faaq Mabhu was killed “in an exchange of fire” inside Al-Shifa hospital where he “worked to promote terrorist activities”. Fayq Al-Mabhouh, presented as “responsible for coordinating Hamas’ terrorist activities in the Gaza Strip”, is the brother of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas’ armed wing, who was killed in 2010 in Dubai.
In addition to Faaq Mabhu, the Israeli army also claimed to have “eliminated” 20 Palestinian fighters during the military operation at Al-Shifa hospital.
“Twenty terrorists have been eliminated so far at Al-Shifa hospital and dozens of detained suspects are currently being interrogated,” the army said in a statement.
The deaths occurred during a “high precision operation”, launched by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the early hours of Monday, in the vicinity of Al-Shifa hospital, in Gaza city.
The Israeli army justified its operation with “the presence of high-level Hamas terrorists” on the premises of the Al-Shifa hospital and called for the removal of the civilian population to the areas surrounding the hospital complex.
“Money and weapons were located in the hospital to be distributed to Hamas terrorist agents. This is further proof of Hamas’ systematic use of hospitals and civilian infrastructure for its terrorist activities”, claims the Israeli army. Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, is now one of the only health facilities that is partially operational in the north of the territory and also houses hundreds of displaced civilians.
According to reports cited by international media, the surgical building at the Al-Shifa Medical Complex was “full of wounded” when it was hit by Israeli missiles and, as a result, went up in flames.
The Ministry Palestinian of Health in Gaza also indicated that there were several fatalities and injured people, including cases of suffocation of women and children who were sheltering in the hospital complex.
“There are victims, including dead and injured, and it is impossible to rescue anyone due to the intensity of the fire and the attack on anyone who approaches the windows,” said the MinistryO.
Gaza authorities accuse Israel of committing “blatant war crimes”
The authorities in the Gaza Strip accused the Israeli Army of committing “flagrant war crimes” in its military incursion and of “directly attacking the hospital buildings, without concern for the patients, doctors or displaced people inside”.
The press office of the Gaza authorities, controlled by Hamas, also accused the Israeli military of beating and detaining several journalists inside this hospital, and considered that the Israeli army “has full responsibility for the safety and lives of workers at the ‘ media’ which he took to an unknown destination”.
The statement from the Gaza authorities reveals that the military “arrested a group of journalists and media workers who were covering the Israeli aggression inside the Al-Shifa hospital and reporting on the suffering of the Palestinian people, the wounded, the sick and the hungry”.
“We condemn in the strongest terms these flagrant violations committed by the occupying Army,” the statement continues, before also holding the United States and the international community responsible for the safety of these journalists.
The text also issues an appeal to international media organizations, including the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which “exert all forms of pressure on the occupation to end its genocidal war” and denounced that since the beginning of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on October 7th, 135 journalists were killed.
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Tags: Israeli army claims death Hamas official operation AlShifa hospital
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