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Day 1 of IsraelI Attack on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-11-16
Israel attacked the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Wednesday November 15, 2023. News reports of the attack are below. This diary adds what occurred during the afternoon and evening to the prior diary and corrects some statements made earlier. Related events are briefly mentioned as appropriate. The author’s best estimate of what, where and why are given for the initial attack. The text from relevant documents is given in an Appendix, as well as a brief discussion on choice of some words.
Please note that this diary is intended as a news report, and not an analysis or opinion piece. Nevertheless, opinions are given by the author on certain items. A poll is at the end.
The Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City was attacked by Israel Wednesday morning around 12 or 1 am Gaza time (not 4 am as reported earlier). Shifa is the largest and best equipped hospital in Gaza. It is spread out over 4 contiguous city blocks and consists of many buildings. It has been at the focus of news reports for the past week.
News reports from Al Jazeera, CNN, NBC, and Reuters were reviewed, as well as the IDF press conference. (Hamas has not given press conferences.) Al Jazeera reported the largest amount of destruction. The IDF reported the most military details,. (Statements from the Hamas controlled Gaza Health Ministry, including from this Hamas controlled hospital, and the Israeli Prime Minister are not reported herein, as they were so far from the other reports as not to be believable, at least to this author.)
Israel entered from the western side of the hospital complex as shown in the diagrams towards the end of the diary. Israel said it was a precise, targeted attack to a specific area of the hospital, and that their soldiers knew exactly where they were going. By the end of the day, this “specific area” appears to have expanded to the entire hospital complex.
Israel said that they gave the hospital a 12 hour warning, which is the time required by international law. A doctor in the hospital said he received only a 30 minute warning. Exactly what happened is impossible to say without having more information.
The attack began with Israel encountering explosives and Hamas soldiers, of whom they killed 4 to 5 or more. Then, the IDF soldiers entered one or more of the hospital buildings (details not provided). Soldiers are said to have encountered doctors and patients, but there was “no friction” per the IDF. Soldiers found weapons and other evidence of the presence of Hamas fighters, which is described below. The weapons and other evidence justifies Israel’s attack under international law. There were some fights and explosions reported, but unclear if these occurred inside or outside the hospital. Israel found the underground Hamas Command or Control Center, or headquarters, and took communications equipment and unspecified intelligence materials. Israel didn’t provide any pictures of the headquarters. Israel looked for hostages, but didn’t find any, so far. Israel is continuing to look for hostages in the rest of the hospital complex.
Israel showed pictures and videos of weapons, ammunition, grenades, and bags to carry these items in (and with the Hamas insignia on them) stashed behind the large MRI machine in the hospital and on the shelves & in the cabinets of the MRI room. Some pictures are below. The best video found is on Twitter. They also found another cache of weapons in a different area of the hospital, also seen in this video. The IDF reported finding two Hamas uniforms on the floor of the hospital, but there were no pictures of them. However, there is no independent confirmation of the IDF findings, and no press with the IDF in the hospital.
Stach Behind MRI Machine at Al-Shifa Hospital. The rear of the MRI is the white structure to the left. The stash is to the right. At the lower right, the clip of an AK-47 rifle is visible, as is part of the AK-47, which is in a “grab” bag.
Weapons cache displayed in hallway of Al Shifa Hospital. They were found during the search of the hospital. In the foreground are AK-47 automatic rifles to the left, ammunition clips for these rifles in the middle, and body armor to the right. Behind the bags is a black and green back pack in the center. To its right are 3 grenades and 2 large bullets. Other items are clothing, boots, and an unknown line of items immediately to the right of the grenades. The two items standing up in the rear center aren’t weapons or clothing, but the legs of an IDF soldier with boots on. (A trash can is in the upper right.) The rifle butts from the AK-47’s have been detached, likely to make them easier to pack in a bag. ./ eople covered with lightly bloodied sheets, a destroyed room, and squiggly babies laid out on a table. A picture of the hall is below. It isn’t clear why there is smoke as no fires or explosives were reported, and the babies should be in some type of container where they can’t fall off the table.
Smoke filled hallway of Al Sifra Hospital with a patient being rolled thru the smoke. The source of the smoke is unknown.
They also reported tanks on the grounds of the hospital, and patients being interrogated in the courtyard, but didn’t provide any pictures like they did inside the hospital. There are videos of IDF tanks driving around, but these look like they are on streets outside the hospital, and the videos are identified as in the area around the hospital or on the hospital grounds.
The Hamas videos suffer from the same issue as the IDF videos – a lack of independent confirmation of the findings, and no press in the hospital.
IDF Delivering Medical Supplies to Al-Shifa Hospital, Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Israel delivered incubators, nursery supplies, and medical supplies to the hospital. The picture below of a stack of boxes containing these items is below, and was headline picture of the prior diary. This picture is most likely accurate based upon an IDF video where the equipment can be seen, and where boxes were heavy enough to require more than one soldier to carry it.
The IDF says that they have left the eastern side of the hospital open so patients and others can evacuate.
The IDF said that they will remain at the hospital until they finish searching it for hostages and to remove military equipment and supplies. Given the size of the sprawling complex, this could take a week, or maybe longer, per the author.
After finishing their search and removal, it is unclear what is to happen with the hospital. Will it continue to operate, or will it be shut down ? If it continues to operate, who will administrate it, and who will staff it ? NBC interviewed an IDF Lt. Col. and asked about the future of the hospital, but he talked about how the IDF is helping the hospital without ever answering the question. The author fears that this hospital will fall into similar problems the US had after the fall of Iraq due to poor planning for the future. (This is not the fault of the IDF unless they were tasked with planning for the hospital’s future. The fault would lie with whoever was tasked with future plans, or who failed to task someone.)
Given the size of this hospital, and the need for medical treatment of the Gaza residents, the author fervently hopes that Al Shifa will remain open and functioning after the IDF leaves and moves further into Gaza City. (As a minimum, the IDF will likely need to leave some troops behind for security and to prevent looting.)
INITIAL ATTACK
The author’s best estimate of what, where and why at the start of the attack follows using the diagrams below.
The highest value military target is Hamas’ headquarters (HQ) as shown in the diagrams. The HQ are close to the western side of the complex, with only a parking lot and the out-patient clinic separating them from the street.
Israel would want to search the HQ for intelligence before removing equipment, and making the HQ unusable.
Israel would most likely have first entered the hospital grounds thru the parking lot adjacent to the out-patient clinic, and then entered the building with the underground HQ from either the rear, or the side or both. (They may have entered from the front but people are sleeping in front of this building.)
Israel would most likely have first entered the hospital grounds thru the parking lot adjacent to the out-patient clinic, and then entered the building with the underground HQ from either the rear, or the side or both. (They may have entered from the front but people are sleeping in front of this building.)
IDF Graphic of What is Underground of Al-Shifa Hospital. The headquarters, called Command and Control Center, is enlarged at lower left. (The function of headquarters is command and control.) The yellow C in the middle is where the car was parked when it was hit by a flying object on November 10.
Overhead View of Al-Shifa Hospital. The white diamond outlines the boundary of the hospital. West is to the left.. The red circle is where the Hamas underground headquarters is located per the IDF. The open, blue arrow to the left of the red circle is where the author the author thinks the IDF entered the hospital complex. The direction is thru a parking lot. There is a road between the buildings at the tip of the arrow. The yellow P is where the headline picture was taken. The overhead picture was taken before the connector between the buildings was built.
OTHER RELEVANT EVENTS to the AL-SHIFA HOSPITAL ATTACK
President Biden said on Wednesday, “You have a circumstance where the first war crime is being committed by Hamas by having their headquarters, their military, hidden under a hospital. And that’s a fact, that’s what’s happened,” thereby backing up Israel’s claim of military use of the hospital, and justification for the attack.
The IDF talked about the Rantisi Children’s Hospital on Wednesday. That they found military use of the hospital, and previously showed pictures.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution late Wednesday calling for extended humanitarian pauses and the release of hostages. The vote was 12-0 with the US, the UK and Russia abstaining. The author is waiting on the text of the resolution to be released, which hasn’t occurred as of this writing.
Islamic Jihad said on November 14 that it will hold its hostages until it obtains a “better” deal from Israel to exchange Palestinian prisoners for hostages. Instead of having to negotiate with just Hamas for the release of the hostages, now Israel also has to negotiate with Islamic Jihad.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has yet to visit the hostages being held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad despite repeated requests. They are continuing negotiations with these groups for access to the hostages. While preventing access to the hostages may not be against international humanitarian law, hostage-taking itself is prohibited under international humanitarian law.
Finally from the ISW, “Western media reported that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei complained that Hamas did not warn Iran about its October 7 attack during his meeting with Hamas Political Bureau Head Esmail Haniyeh in Tehran on November 5, citing Iranian and Hamas officials.” Even though this last item isn’t directly related to Al Shafi Hospital, the author finds it fascinating for what it implies.
As of the writing of this diary, Israel is still inside the buildings, and are likely to remain for a while. Further information will likely emerge during the coming days. The author suspects things will be less dramatic than on the first day.
APPENDIX
Words
Some commentators to the prior diary questioned the use of the word “attack” to characterize what the IDF did, and preferred the word “raid.” The author looked into this choice of words. At the start of the attack, it looked and sounded more like a raid than a full scale onslaught. However, as things developed during the day, it lost the character of a raid, as the IDF didn’t go in and come out (which is what happens in a raid), but went in and stayed.
The media uses a number of different words and phrases to characterize what the IDF is doing, including the word “attack.” Obviously, they are struggling to find an appropriate word as well. For the time being, this diary will continue to use the word attack, especially as it is a simple single word, and, as a category, encompasses the other words and phrases.
IDF Press Conference
The parts of the transcript of the IDF Press Conference on Wednesday that discuss the attack on the Al-Shifa Hospital is given below.
Statement
IDF troops continue to operate at this hour in a concerted manner in the area of the Shifa hospital. We began this operation last night. Shifa hospital is a place which we knew, based on intelligence, housed terror infrastructure. Since then, we are deepening the operation. In the hospital, we found weapons, intelligence material, military technological assets and military equipment. We also discovered an operational command center with communications equipment and military technological assets belonging to Hamas, which were sent to our intelligence agencies for full analysis. The troops continue to search the hospital in a precise, intelligence-based, manner. We will continue to do so, in order to gather further information, to discover additional assets, and to expose the terror activities within the hospital.
Over the last few days, we’ve been in contact multiple times with the various hospital staff to facilitate evacuation of patients and those taking shelter at the hospital, who Hamas tried to use human shields. We found uniforms of Hamas terrorists which were thrown on the hospital floor, to allow those terrorists to escape, likely disguised as civilians.
We warned the hospital management in advance, before our operation. Today, we also delivered to the hospital medical equipment and baby food.
The Shifa hospital, the Rantisi hospital – these and other hospitals were used by Hamas for terror. These discoveries we made at Shifa, as well as at the Rantisi hospital, prove unequivocally that military use was made of the hospitals for terror purposes, in complete contravention to international law. We will continue to expose this to the world, and to expose the way in which Hamas-ISIS carried out terror activity under the cover of hospitals.
Questions ?
Did the delay in entering the Shifa hospital cause us not to find information regarding the hostages? Where are the Hamas terrorists that were claimed to have been hiding in the Shifa hospital?
We began the Shifa hospital operation at the time that was right for us – operationally, intelligence-wise, and for the safety of our troops. There were also the steps we took vis a vis the hospital staff, while evacuating a large number of civilians from the hospital. There were many more people present in the hospital than there are now. This would have endangered both our troops and civilians, and would provide Hamas with the achievement they’re after. What did Hamas want to achieve? It wanted images of the IDF harming civilians and patients in a hospital.
We are carrying out a precise, quality operation. Our troops have trained, special units are operating inside the hospital after detailed preparation, based on intelligence. This is how we operate. This, in contrast to Hamas’s attempt to succeed in delegitimizing the State of Israel.
This operation requires time, it’s a complicated area. There are still many civilians, patients, medical staff and those taking shelter at the hospital. We also must conduct this at the right pace, to conduct this optimally from an operational and intelligence-based standpoint, and take as long as is required in accordance with our objectives.
There’s no doubt, based on these findings alone, that Hamas directed this terrorist infrastructure. We shouldn’t be distracted by a terrorist or two who took off their uniform, disguised themselves within the patients and escaped. After October 7th, this place was the hideout for some 200 Hamas terrorists, murderous terrorists who participated in the horrific massacre – they escaped to the hospital.
We have come today to Shifa hospital, which is seen as a symbol, and Hamas leadership considers it a symbol. Not one of them imagined we would enter Shifa hospital, and we will continue to enter any place where Hamas terrorists are present and will hunt them down.
[END]
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