The Israeli military operation inside and around al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City entered its third day on 20 March, with reports of “heavy exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups,” the United Nations has said.1

Launching the raid in the early hours of 18 March,2 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) cited intelligence suggesting that Palestinian armed groups were using the hospital for military purposes. The IDF claimed to have killed 90 armed Palestinians and arrested 300 people, 160 of whom were taken to Israel for further interrogation.3 A military correspondent for Israel’s public broadcaster posted images of dozens of blindfolded men, their hands seemingly tied, being taken away in the back of a truck.4

Gaza’s government denied the IDF’s claims, telling Reuters5 that all of those killed had been wounded patients and displaced people. Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas government’s media office, said, “The Israeli occupation army practises lying and deception in spreading its narrative as part of justifying its continuous and law breaking crimes, …