Hamas Warns of New Massacre as Israel Threatens to Bomb Gaza’s Largest Hospital

Friday, 27 October 2023 7:17 PM  

The file photo by Palestine’s Shehab news agency shows the Special Surgery Building at the Dar al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has warned of a new Israeli massacre of civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip as the regime threatens to bomb the largest medical complex housing tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians.

Hamas raised the alarm on Friday evening while dismissing as “criminal and dangerous” groundless accusations by the Israeli military about the movement’s use of Dar al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza for military purposes.

The medical complex contains thousands of patients and wounded, and houses more than 40,000 thousand displaced people.

"There is no basis for the claims made by the [the Israeli military] over the presence of Hamas commanders under al-Shifa Hospital," senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rashaq said in a statement on his Telegram account. "This was part of a series of lies on which Israel builds its narrative."

Rashaq warned that Israel was using the allegations as a "prelude" to "commit a new massacre bigger than the one on al-Ahli Hospital."

"We call on world leaders to act to stop the crimes of genocide," the senior Hamas official added.

Earlier in the day, the Israel military threatened to target Dar al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, claiming that it was being used as a "shield" for "Hamas operations.”

Israeli strikes on Monday hit areas surrounding the Dar al-Shifa and al-Quds hospitals in Gaza.

Israeli warplanes conduct new strikes against the Gaza Strip, bombarding areas near three hospitals.

Nearly 500 people were killed in a strike on Ahli Arab Hospital on October 17, making it by far the highest death toll of any single incident in Gaza during the Israeli war on the besieged territory.

On October 7, Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups launched the surprise offensive in response to the occupying regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.

Since then, Israel has pressed ahead with an incessant bombardment of Gaza. The death toll in Gaza since the start of Israeli aggression has reached over 7,400 with more than 20,500 wounded.

Tel Aviv has also blocked water, food, and electricity to Gaza, plunging the besieged territory into a humanitarian crisis.

Speculations are abundant that the Israeli regime is bracing for an imminent ground invasion of the Gaza Strip in defiance of the international community’s unanimous calls to stall its war machine and put an end to its heinous atrocities in Palestinian territories.