Gaza, Mar 20 (UNI) At least 250 Palestinians were killed and injured due to an Israeli raid on the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, the Hamas-run media office said on Tuesday.
It said in a statement that the Israeli troops fired bullets, shells, and missiles intensively toward patients, displaced persons, and civilians during their raid, resulting in the injury and death of more than 250 Palestinians, with some facilities inside the hospital being burned.
The statement did not specify the exact number of the death toll in the raid.
The statement added that the raid involved hundreds of Israeli soldiers armed with weapons, police dogs, dozens of tanks, drones, and helicopters.
The office held Israel and the United States fully responsible for what it termed a "massacre," calling on international and UN organizations to "intervene immediately to stop the aggression on Gaza, which targets civilians, children, and women."
In a separate statement, Hamas said "the attempt to use the escalation of barbaric aggression against civilians as a means of pressure and extortion to achieve their goals will not succeed."
Israeli army's spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a statement on social media platform X that the Israeli army and the General Security Service Shin Bet continued their operations in the Shifa complex for the second consecutive day.
He added that the Israeli forces were "eliminating saboteurs in face-to-face battles" and had uncovered combat equipment in the area while avoiding harm to civilians, patients, medical personnel, and medical facilities.
The Israeli forces have so far killed "more than 50 saboteurs and arrested about 180 suspects," according to the statement.
The Israel Defense Forces announced the death of a commander earlier Tuesday. The death of the 51-year-old commander brought the death toll of the Israeli army since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict to 594.
On Monday, the Israeli army launched an operation within the complex, marking its second raid on the hospital since the onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7 last year. The first raid occurred in November last year.
UNI/XINHUA ARN