"All men 16 years and above, raise your hands," a Israeli soldier shouted...
Gaza City, Dozens of Israeli forces, some wearing facemasks and firing guns into the air, early Wednesday raided part of Gaza's biggest hospital, filled with patients and displaced people, after Israel battle against them.
"All men 16 years and above, raise your hands," a soldier shouted in Arabic through a loudspeaker, to those sheltering inside Al-Shifa hospital, which has become the centre of fierce urban combat for days.
"Exit the building towards the courtyard and surrender," the soldier ordered, according to a journalist who took refuge inside the embattled hospital several days ago and who has been in contact with AFP.
The army labelled the raid a "precise and targeted" operation against Hamas, the Palestinian group that launched the October 7 attacks that started the Gaza war and which Israel claims is running a command centre beneath the clinic.
Israeli and Palestinian officials both reported the overnight military operations at Al-Shifa, the focal point of days of deadly fighting and nearby aerial bombardments.
Witnesses have described conditions inside the hospital as horrific, with medical procedures performed without anaesthetic, families with scant food or water living in corridors, and the stench of decomposing corpses filling the air.
As Israeli forces raced through the corridors, hundreds of young men emerged from different wards, including the maternity section, which was hit in a strike a few days ago, the journalist reported.
Soldiers were firing warning shots as they moved from room to room looking for Hamas, he said.
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