The Israeli army on Saturday denied that it had shelled al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, calling it “false” reports that its forces were “surrounding and striking” the facility, AFP and Agerpres reported.

“False information has been spread over the past few hours that we are surrounding Al-Shifa Hospital and striking it,” Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said.

Since Friday, numerous reports collected by AFP or reported by international organizations indicate an increase in fighting around this hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, where, in addition to patients, thousands of civilians have taken refuge.

“Hamas is lying about what is happening in the hospitals,” Hagari said, adding that the Israeli army would help evacuate the babies from Shifa Hospital on Sunday.

“Yesterday, he was quick to accuse us of being responsible for the attack on Al Shifa Hospital. We checked the systems and found that it was a misfired missile that belonged to terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip,” the Israeli official explained.

He confirmed that there is “an established way of exit and entrance from the east side of the hospital.”

Another hospital in Gaza, Rantisi Pediatric Hospital, “was evacuated” because of “a terrorist holding a thousand Palestinians hostage in Gaza,” an Israeli army spokesman also said.

On the 37th day of the war, provoked by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on the territory of Israel on October 7, 20 of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip cannot provide adequate medical services, the UN Coordination Office reports. humanitarian affairs (OCHA).