JERUSALEM

The Israeli army said on Monday that it had arrested 500 Palestinians in and around Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the past week.

A military statement said the detainees were taken into custody for their links to Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

There was no comment from the two groups on the Israeli allegation.

The army raided the hospital on March 18, which houses thousands of ill and wounded patients as well as displaced residents.

According to Gaza’s government media office, more than 250 Palestinians have been killed and injured in the Israeli raid on the facility.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed.

More than 32,200 Palestinians have since been killed and over 74,500 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul