Gaza, 18 March 2024 (dpa/MIA) - The Israeli army early on Monday said it was once again deploying troops in the Shifa hospital area in Gaza City.

A "precise operation" was being carried out "in the area of the Shifa hospital," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a Telegram post in the early hours of Monday.

The IDF said that intelligence information indicated that senior members of Palestinian militant group Hamas were using the badly damaged hospital "to conduct and promote terrorist activity."

The IDF added that its troops had been "instructed on the importance of operating cautiously, as well as on the measures to be taken to avoid to harming the patients, civilians, medical staff, and medical equipment," before the operation started.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a brief statement that the operation followed "concrete intelligence that demanded immediate action."

"We know that senior Hamas terrorists have regrouped inside the Shifa hospital and are using it to command attacks against Israel," Hagari added.

The IDF added that there was no obligation for patients and medical staff to leave the hospital. The military said it would "continue to act in accordance with international law and against the Hamas terrorist organization - which operates from hospitals and civilian infrastructure in a systematic and cynical way."

The US government had also supported the Israeli claim that Hamas had used the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip as a command centre and weapons depot.

The Israeli military had already invaded the Shifa hospital in mid-November despite massive international criticism. The IDF said it found a Hamas tunnel complex there.

Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas led unprecedented attacks on Israel on October 7, in which they killed around 1,200 people, most of them civilians.

More than 31,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the beginning of the war more than five months ago, according to Gaza's health authority. Around 73,680 others have been injured.

Israeli leaders have said that the goal of the military operations is to destroy Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since seizing power there in 2007.

MIA file photo