Early Thursday, March 28, the Hamas health ministry reported at least 66 deaths in the Gaza Strip overnight, including in airstrikes, while a senior local official reported fighting near Gaza City (North) and Khan Younes (South). At the same time, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported clashes in different locations in the West Bank.
The Israeli army, which accuses Hamas fighters of hiding in hospitals, continues its operation launched on March 18 in the Al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City. In Khan Younes, soldiers are carrying out operations in the area of the Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals, approximately one kilometer apart, as well as in the Al-Qarara area.
The army said in a statement on Thursday that it had “eliminated around 200 terrorists in the Al-Shifa hospital area since the start of operations. Israeli soldiers came under fire “over the past day, from inside and outside the building housing the emergency room of Al-Shifa hospital,” the same source added.
Israeli troops “evacuated civilians, patients and medical teams to alternative medical facilities set up by the army to allow appropriate medical treatment to continue,” the army assured.
Al-Amal Hospital “has stopped functioning completely,” the Palestinian Red Crescent said earlier this week, after the civilians there were evacuated. The Israeli army said Thursday it had “eliminated dozens of terrorists in the Al-Amal area,” where its troops “found explosive devices and mortar shells.”
The Israeli government expressed its anger after the abstention of the American ally, which allowed the recent adoption of a resolution at the UN demanding an "immediate ceasefire", and had canceled the sending of a delegation to Washington to discuss the planned land offensive in Rafah. But on Wednesday, a senior American official said that Benjamin Netanyahu's services had "made it known that they would like to find a new date to organize the meeting dedicated to Rafah."
At the same time, Qatar – which plays the role of mediator with Egypt and the United States – this week ensured the continuation of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, aiming to secure a truce of several weeks in the fighting, coupled with an exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
The war that began on October 7 resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, mainly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse count based on official Israeli data. The Hamas health ministry, for its part, announced on Thursday a new toll of 32,552 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
