Israeli troops have entered Nasser Medical Complex, the hospital in southern Gaza where thousands of displaced Palestinians had been sheltering in recent days, Gaza’s health ministry and the Israeli military said on Thursday.
Ashraf al-Qudra, the health ministry’s spokesman, said in a statement that the Israeli military had demolished the complex’s southern wall and begun storming it. In a second statement, he said Israeli forces were targeting the hospital’s orthopedic department, killing one patient and injuring several others.
The Israeli military said in its own statement on Thursday morning that it was “conducting a precise and limited operation inside Nasser” against Hamas, which it accused of hiding in the hospital among wounded civilians. It said it had intelligence, including from released hostages, that Hamas had held hostages at the hospital and that bodies of hostages could be at the hospital.
When it comes to human shields, the only independent verification back in 2014 (Amnesty link) is of Weapons (not rockets) hidden at a vacant school, situated btwn 2 UNRWA schools housing displaced people, by a Palestinian armed group.
The Guardian journalists had encountered a couple individuals in 2014 too.
HRW on Laws-of-War Violations 2009
Amnesty on Hamas War Crimes 2023
Yet none of those come remotely close to making hospitals and schools bombing targets. Even if all the IDF claims were true, that does not exempt those hospitals and schools as protected under international law.
While we’re on the subject, let’s look at how the IDF uses Human Shields including Children (2013 Report)