Gaza hospitals and nearby terrorists are flashpoints in Israel war

The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by the terrorist group Hamas, on Friday said that Israeli forces were attacking hospitals in the region. The Israeli military meanwhile asserts that Hamas has set up military operational centers in and around hospitals in the area, including its command center in the Al Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza. It also has often said Hamas uses hospitals and other sensitive locations as cover for military activities. On Sunday, a World Health Organization official said the situation at Al Shifa was "dire and perilous" due to a lack of resources. But also on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told NBC's Meet the Press that Israeli forces were evacuating patients and had offered fuel to the hospital. 

What sort of attacks are these? The Gaza Health Ministry on Friday claimed that a strike on Al Shifa’s courtyard and obstetrics ward had killed one person, and that the strike was caused by Israel. However, the Associated Press could not independently verify that Israel was behind the strike on Shifa. The Israeli Army said one strike at Shifa was the result of a misfire by militants who had been targeting Israeli troops. Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht on Friday said the Israeli military was slowly closing in on hospitals in the region. 

Dig deeper: Read A.S. Ibrahim’s column in WORLD Opinions about what Hamas represents.