Israel says 20 militants killed at key Gaza hospital

Israel'smilitary said 20 Palestinian militants were killed Monday and dozens detainedduring a raid on Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital that targeted "senior Hamasterrorists".

Soldiers rolled in with tanks and air strikes hit the area around theHamas-ruled territory's biggest medical centre, a complex crowded with patientsand displaced people, reports BSS.

"Twenty terrorists have been eliminated at Al-Shifa hospital thus far invarious engagements, and dozens of apprehended suspects are currently inquestioning," the army said in a statement.

Israel earlier reported the "elimination" of Fayq al-Mabhouh, a man theyidentified as a Hamas internal security official. A Gaza police sourceconfirmed his death, saying Mabhouh was a brigadier general in the force.

The latest military operation around the hospital -- which was raided byIsraeli troops before, in November, sparking an international outcry --triggered alarm from the World Health Organization.

"We are terribly worried about the situation at Al-Shifa Hospital innorthern Gaza," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, formerlyTwitter.

"Hospitals should never be battlegrounds."

An AFP journalist witnessed air strikes on buildings in the area around thehospital and reported seeing "hundreds of people, mostly children, women, andthe elderly, fleeing their homes".

Israel has repeatedly said the complex housed an underground Hamas controlbase, a claim denied by the militants.
Tedros said that Al-Shifa had "only recently restored minimal healthservices".
Most of Gaza's hospitals are no longer functioning, according to the UnitedNations.
The Israeli military reported gun battles at the Al-Shifa compoundincluding one that it said killed Mabhouh.
"Numerous weapons were located in the room adjacent to where he waseliminated," the military said.
Fayq al-Mabhouh is the brother of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the foundersof the armed wing of Hamas, according to family members.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed in 2010 in Dubai, in a hit which United ArabEmirates investigators suspected was the work of Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.
Israel said the Al-Shifa "operation is based on intelligence informationindicating the use of the hospital by senior Hamas terrorists".
On Monday, the army released a video showing what it said were weapons andmoney seized from the hospital which had been used by Hamas and another armedgroup, Islamic Jihad.
In January Israel's army said it had "completed the dismantling" of Hamas'scommand structure in the northern Gaza Strip, where Al-Shifa is located.
The military has carried out operations at other hospitals in Gaza sincewar broke out on October 7, when Hamas militants attacked Israel from Gaza.
The unprecedented attack resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostlycivilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Gaza militants also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes 130remain in Gaza, including 33 who are presumed dead.
Israel has carried out a relentless bombing campaign and ground offensivethat Gaza's health ministry says has killed at least 31,726 people, most ofthem women and children.