Facing an international outcry over the increasingly grim conditions at besieged hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Israel sought to bolster its case for military action on Tuesday, releasing a video of what it said were weapons inside a children’s hospital and accounts of sexual violence and other atrocities committed by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks.
Israel’s efforts came as conditions for patients, including about three dozen premature babies, became bleaker at the main hospital complex in Gaza City, which has been surrounded by Israeli troops and without power for days. Workers at the hospital, Al-Shifa, are digging a mass grave for bodies there that have started to decompose, according to the medical authorities in Gaza, which Hamas controls.
The hospital’s director, Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, said that doctors there had performed surgeries on Monday without anesthesia and oxygen, and that multiple people had died at the medical complex. He added that health workers had been forced to bury bodies inside the grounds.
Israel presented the video — its second in two days — after weeks in which protesters, for and against the military campaign, have demonstrated around the world and as the United Nations, aid groups and many countries have criticized Israel, called for a cease-fire and warned of calamity at the hospitals. In recent days, President Biden has also urged Israel to use restraint around medical centers,
