Israeli special forces have entered Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, according to both the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said they had “credible intelligence from a number of sources, including from released hostages,” that Hamas had previously held hostages at the hospital, and that the bodies of deceased hostages may be present at the hospital.
The military did not publicly release that evidence.
Hagari said that IDF forces were “conducting a precise and limited operation inside Nasser hospital.”
Israeli military bulldozers are digging up the mass graves that had been dug inside the complex walls, Dr. Al-Qidra said.
It comes a day after hundreds of civilians were forced by Israeli forces to leave the hospital, which they had been using as a shelter.
Palestinian patients arrive in Rafah, Gaza, after they were evacuated from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis due to the Israeli ground operation, on February 15. Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Video filmed on Tuesday at the hospital shows columns of smoke at its perimeter, an Israeli bulldozer destroying a hospital perimeter wall, and an armored vehicle entering the hospital grounds. The sound of gunfire can be heard throughout.
Doctors and medical officials say that Israeli snipers have shot dead several people as they tried to leave the hospital complex over recent days.
