TEHRAN- In what has been described as a new low for Israeli war crimes in Gaza, the regime's forces have raided the enclave's al-Shifa hospital, the biggest medical facility in the besieged territory, killing families sheltering there. 

Israeli troops shot dead dozens of civilians trying to flee the regime's army. 

Amid the brutal raid, Gaza government officials said the occupation forces opened fire on families trying to leave the hospital, which "led to more than 30 Palestinian martyrs". 

Many more have reportedly been injured at the site where (as well as thousands of doctors, nurses and patients) thousands of civilians took refuge, believing it to be a safe haven from the Israeli bombardment. 

Forty days after its war on Gaza, an army that once considered itself invincible and was believed as such in the region and beyond, is now trying to present an attack on a hospital as a victory to others. 

Yet Palestinian resistance continued to inflict heavy defeats on Israeli ground forces on Wednesday, blowing up Merkava tanks, killing Israeli troops and firing missiles at occupied territories. 

According to Palestinian sources, the regime also arrested at least 200 civilians and patients at the hospital complex. 

The director of the al-Shifa hospital complex issued disturbing statements. 

"We contacted all relevant international bodies, but have not received anything other than expressing concern. The emergency department has shut down operations while hundreds of wounded people were admitted there. More than 900 patients and 5,000 displaced people are facing certain death at the hospital" he warned. 

The UN’s Griffiths has condemned the Israeli military raid at al-Shifa hospital compound, saying "hospitals are not battlegrounds".He also said, "It is possible hundreds of people will die in their homes due to the lack of health facilities" as a result of the Israeli damage to the health facility. 

Experts say taking over a hospital is far from a military victory or an achievement, but merely psychological warfare. 

During the invasion of Iraq, the United States and its media put much focus on capturing Baghdad International Airport, aiming to portray this takeover as a victory. International media went along with this bogus claim. 

In a similar fashion, the Israelis have, for a long time now, been spreading fake news linking Hamas to al-Shifa hospital, while pinning their hopes that taking over a medical facility would be portrayed by the media as a military achievement. 
But, while Israeli media may boast about the war crime in the hospital, the international media is not buying it. 
On the 40th day of the Israeli war on Gaza, Palestinian doctors at the hospital reported hearing explosions in the large compound. They say the Israeli military attack came from the west, with troops storming into the surgical and emergency sections of the facility. 

The regime said it would rescue hostages and destroy a Hamas center at the hospital, yet it has proven to be another major intelligence failure for the Israelis. 

The regime's Channel 13 reported that "contrary to what was predicted, al-Shifa hospital was devoid of any weapons and military equipment."

Meanwhile, some sources have said that no traces of hostages were found. 

All the regime has achieved is to exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation for Palestinians in Gaza. 

Regional journalists based in Gaza who have managed to get in touch with those stuck inside the hospital have reported a terrifying state of affairs, with doctors, nurses and families traumatized as heavily armed Israeli troops rampage through the medical complex. 

They have described women and children in a state of shock and screaming in fear. 

One Gaza-based journalist reported that the occupation forces turned al-Shifa hospital into a military barrack and during the raid they handcuffed a large number of doctors and shot at some of them, allowing troops to expand their attack in the corridors of the medical complex.

Over the past days, Israeli ground forces have been advancing towards the hospital, trapping around 1,200 patients and staff, despite global calls on the regime to halt its offensive against a medical center, which under the rules of war must be spared from any attack. 

Khader al-Zaanoun, a reporter for the Palestinian news agency, WAFA, told CNN, Israeli tanks and military vehicles were "inside the courtyard of al-Shifa hospital." 

Israeli troops, he said, were in the buildings "conducting search and interrogation operations” and that the Israeli army "is calling on the young men through megaphones to raise their hands, come out, and surrender themselves."

The regime has published images of its military operation, purportedly showing troops on foot and in military vehicles attacking the vicinity of the medical center. 

The Israeli occupation has claimed that al-Shifa hospital has been used by the Hamas resistance without providing a shred of evidence to back up the accusation. 

White House's National Security Council spokesperson, John Kirby, said on Tuesday that the U.S. had its intelligence that showed Hamas was operating out of al-Shifa without specifying what evidence he was basing the U.S. allegation on.

Hamas has responded by "strongly condemning and rejecting the claims".

The organization has called on the UN to "establish an international committee to inspect all hospitals in Gaza" in order to "expose the falsehoods in the occupation’s narrative".

In a statement on Wednesday, Hamas blamed U.S. President Joe Biden for the "storming" of the facility.

Hamas has also accused the U.S. of giving the regime the "green light" to launch the raid by "adopting" Israeli claims that the hospital was being used by the resistance.

It held the "Zionist regime, President Biden, and his administration, fully responsible for the repercussions of the occupation army’s storming of the Shifa Medical Complex, and what the medical staff and thousands of displaced people are exposed to, as a result of this brutal crime against a health facility protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention".

"These statements (by the White House) give a green light to the Israeli occupation to commit further brutal massacres targeting hospitals, with the goal of destroying Gaza's healthcare system and displacing Palestinians," the resistance group added. 
The health ministry for the Palestinian Authority - based in the occupied West Bank - has also said that Israeli forces are "fully responsible" for the lives of medical staff, patients and displaced people in Gaza's al-Shifa hospital.

Youssef Abu Rish, an official with the Gaza health ministry, who is inside the hospital, said he could see tanks inside the complex and "dozens of soldiers and commandos inside the emergency and reception buildings."

The World Health Organisation said it had lost contact with staff at the hospital after Israeli forces stormed the facility, the head of the agency said. 

The hospital is a large complex comprising of 22 acres, housing emergency and neonatal facilities as well as specialist units.

Following the Israeli ground offensive, it also became a refugee camp where thousands of civilians sought sanctuary and shelter in its courtyards, corridors, and wards from the regime's unprecedented bombardment of Gaza. 

More than that, it has become a place that is symbolic of Palestinian resilience, where doctors have performed heroically, saving lives in the most difficult of conditions.

The hospital had already been operating under enormous pressure amid the extraordinary courage of its doctors and nurses, who have been strongly praised and admired by international humanitarian organizations. 

They have been operating against the odds as the war has closed in around them.

The official in charge of the United Nations humanitarian operations, Martin Griffiths, has condemned the Israeli military raid at the hospital compound, saying "hospitals are not battlegrounds".

In a post on social media, he said, "I’m appalled by reports of military raids in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff, and all civilians must override all other concerns. Hospitals are not battlegrounds."

Al Jazeera said it was in contact with Ahmed Mokhallalati, a doctor inside al-Shifa hospital who has regularly spoken to the media. 

He said, "Since yesterday evening, there have been really continuous, aggressive gunshots, bombardments and attacks. It’s a totally scary time; it’s a horrible time for the families, the civilians sheltering in the hospital with their kids. It’s terrible for the staff who are taking care of their patients and the patients themselves."

"What we feel is really shocking and bad is that the whole world has been witnessing this crime and seeing everything that is happening in front of everybody, and no one has stopped, and no one has said loudly this is not allowed. Where is the international community?" he asked.

Another doctor inside the hospital, Ahmed El Mokhallalati, told Reuters that "Israeli bombardment, shooting around the hospital and within the hospital. It's really horrible... and then we realised that the tanks are moving around the hospital." 

"They just parked in front of the hospital emergency department. All kinds of weapons were used. They targeted the hospital directly. We try to avoid being near the windows."

Hospitals have protected status in wartime, but the Israeli military has proven, on countless occasions, it does not play by the rule books when it comes to war. 

This assault on the biggest medical complex in Gaza is another Israeli war crime that has been "greenlighted" by the West, and the U.S. in particular.

As the Israeli military fails to achieve anything after 40 days of fighting and resorted to brutally attacking a hospital that provided the only real lifeline in Gaza, the regime claimed to have found weapons at the hospital. 

This is despite Israeli sources indicating no weapons were found, and images from inside the hospital show the widespread destruction the Israeli military caused in a desperate attempt to justify its war crime.

In a statement published late on Wednesday, Hamas said, "The Israeli occupation's claim that weapons are being stored at al-Shifa hospital is a blatant lie that should deceive nobody any longer.” 

It added, "The Zionist occupation's claim that it found weapons and military equipment at al-Shifa medical complex is nothing but a continuation of its lies and cheap propaganda trying to justify its genocidal crimes destroying the health sector in Gaza." 

The group reiterated calls for the UN and other organizations to form an international committee to review the conditions of Gaza hospitals, and "determine the falsehood of the occupation's narrative".

"We, the Palestinians, are aware of the degree of lies and deception the occupation has plotted to cover up its crimes against children, women, and defenseless civilians," it concluded. 

By Ali Karbalaei