Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, has become the latest flashpoint in the conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas, which controls the Palestinian enclave.

Israel says Hamas is conducting military operations from a US-backed hospital on Tuesday, a charge Hamas denies.

According to Sky News military analyst Michael Clarke, Hamas has “fought harder for al-Shifa than any other part of Gaza”, suggesting the militants appear to believe there is “something to defend”.

But Hamas insists it is not hiding the weapons and says it would welcome an international team to inspect them.

How did the hospital become a key battleground?

The hospital has a history of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

It was built in 1946 during British rule, two years before Britain withdrew from Palestine and in 1967, before Israel invaded and occupied Gaza.

In the following years, regular clashes took place nearby, which sometimes spilled over into the field.

In 1971, the Times reported a shootout between a Palestinian militant hiding under a bed and an Israeli army patrol searching a hospital.

On December 9, 1987, the first day of the first intifada against the Israeli occupation, which saw the formation of Hamas, Shifa, which means healing in Arabic, was again drawn into the conflict, and the compound’s courtyard was tear-gassed. .

The struggle between Hamas and Fatah

In 1994, Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat’s security forces raised the Palestinian flag over the hospital after Palestinians were granted limited autonomy in Gaza.

Then Hamas won an unexpected victory in the 2006 elections in Gaza.

The following year, Hamas took military control of Gaza, forcing Fatah, the secular group that had long dominated the Palestinian Authority (which is based in the West Bank, Israel’s other Palestinian region), to leave the enclave.

During the power struggle, Fatah and Hamas fighters were treated in Shifa, with the understanding that neither would harm the other.

Hamas has ruled Gaza since then, but the hospital is staffed by doctors paid by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority.

What happens to the patients there?

Of particular concern are the 36 babies, who said there was no clear mechanism for their movement, according to medical staff.

Three of the first 39 premature babies, according to doctors, have already died.

The World Health Organization said there were 3,500 hospital beds in Gaza before the conflict, but now there are about 1,400. (Sky News)