Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Hamas had refused Israel’s fuel offer for Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital. Gaza’s biggest hospital suspended its operations on Saturday after it ran out of fuel amid intensifying Israel-Hamas war.
According to aid agencies, hospitals were targeted by Israeli forces making it difficult for them to treat the wounded and those suffering from ailments. Israel had claimed that Hamas was operating from inside the hospitals. They said Hamas was hiding out inside the hospitals using civilians as human shields.
In an interview with NBC News, Netanyahu said “we have no battle with the civilians or patients.”
“We offered actually, last night, to give them enough fuel to operate the hospital, operate the incubators and so on, because we’ve no battle with patients or civilians at all. We just offered Shifa hospital the fuel, they refused it,” said Netanyahu, reported Reuters.
Over five patients including three newborns lost their lives as the hospital became non-operational.
Israeli military spokesperson Lt Col Richard Hecht said plans were being “developed” to try to evacuate babies from the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.
"We understand the timeliness of this and we are working very hard to try to coordinate this effort. There will be more information coming on that. Our goal is not to take over hospitals. Our goal is to dismantle terrorist infrastructure," Hecht told Sky News.
On Saturday Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said "Israel will provide the assistance needed" to remove the babies from the hospital, after al-Shifa hospital went out of service.
Meanwhile, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy called al-Shifa hospital a "terror compound". Israel had claimed that Hamas militants are hiding in hospitals and coordinating the attacks.
"In the last few days we’ve seen the IDF helping to evacuate civilians from inside hospitals, including places where they were being held as human shields by Hamas," Levy told BBC.
Meanwhile, Hamas has suspended hostage negotiations because of Israel's handling of the al-Shifa hospital. Reportedly, a deal was made to release around 50 or 100 women, children and elderly in stages.
WHO on Saturday had said it lost communication with its contacts in al-Shifa hospital and expressed "grave concerns" for the safety of everyone trapped in the hospital.
