In the midst of the devastation, a line of Palestinian evacuees could be seen, carrying their bags and other belongings. Gunbattles could be heard rattling in the distance. Recent bombing sent black plumes rising into the sky. Instead, there was rubble and a single lifeguard hut. The city’s coastal promenade that once bustled with cafes and coffee shops was gone. At the end of the day, you know why you’re here.” “Even when it’s hard, you sit with your friends and joke around a little bit. Oren, an Israeli soldier who said he is originally from Los Angeles. Everyone’s ready to fight for the country,” said Staff Sgt. Everyone’s ready to do what has to be done. They smiled and posed for the journalists’ cameras. Fortified bulldozers clawed through sand and gravel to clear the way for more tanks.Ībout 20 Israeli soldiers sat on the side of a road. The facade of one abandoned building had been blown off, revealing furnished living rooms, glassware in cabinets somehow intact, mirrors still mounted on walls. What remained on Gaza City’s ghostly streets were the ruins of collapsed buildings, spewing rubble onto streets. What did you Google in 2023? ‘Barbie,’ Israel-Hamas war are among the year’s top internet searches Israeli soldiers shepherded the journalists away. Thousands more who had been sheltering in its courtyard fled south last week as Israeli tanks drew close and fighting raged.Īt one point, several Palestinians leaning out of a window at Shifa locked eyes with journalists. Hundreds of patients and doctors remain stranded at the besieged hospital. From outside the hospital gates, at least a couple dozen exhausted Palestinians could be seen gathering their belongings, apparently ahead of an evacuation. In addition to the tunnel it showed journalists, the army says it had uncovered another two shafts near Shifa.Īlthough the trip was tightly controlled by the Israeli army, journalists could still catch glimpses of life in Gaza. Hamas fighters have used the underground network to ambush Israeli troops. The Israeli military has plowed through northern Gaza over the past month, leaving a trail of destruction in its effort to bomb Hamas’ tunnel network and other targets. Hagari said the cache was just a small sample. On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers showed the foreign journalists weaponry they said they found at Shifa, including dozens of AK-47 assault rifles, 20 grenades and several drones. Israel says at least some of the hostages were brought to Shifa. Israel’s intense aerial campaign and devastating ground invasion have leveled entire neighborhoods, and well over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, according to health officials in the Hamas-ruled territory.īent on toppling Gaza’s Hamas rulers, Israel describes the heavy toll as the inevitable cost of fighting militants who use civilians as human shields and fire rockets from densely populated neighborhoods. 7 cross-border attack that killed at least 1,200 people and took 240 others hostage. There is no other way for foreign journalists to currently access the enclave. The AP was allowed access to Gaza on the condition that its journalist stay with the Israeli military convoy throughout the four-hour tour and submit all material to a military censor ahead of publication. Hamas and the hospital administration have denied Israel’s accusations. Israel has not yet unveiled this purported center, but the military portrayed the underground hideout as its most significant discovery yet. It has paid special attention to Shifa, saying Hamas has hidden command centers and bunkers underneath the hospital’s sprawling grounds. 7, it has repeatedly accused the Islamic militant group of using Gaza’s hospitals as cover for military use. Since Israel declared war against Hamas on Oct. The living quarters, located at the end of the tunnel, had an air conditioner, kitchen, bathroom and pair of metal cots in a room fashioned from rusty white tile. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Israeli military on Wednesday unveiled what it claimed was a Hamas military facility under Gaza’s largest hospital, showing what appeared to be a subterranean dormitory to a group of foreign journalists who were given a rare glimpse inside the besieged enclave.ĭozens of soldiers escorted journalists through a narrow stone tunnel - which the military said stretched 150 meters (164 yards) - to a series of underground bunkers beneath Shifa Hospital in a shattered Gaza City.
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