- Written by Yolande Nel & Sean Seddon
- BBC News (Jerusalem and London)
Israeli forces have withdrawn from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after two weeks of assaults left much of the main medical facility in ruins.
Gaza's health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said dozens of bodies had been found and local residents said neighborhoods had been destroyed.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had killed 200 “terrorists”, captured hundreds more and found weapons and intelligence “throughout the hospital.”
The Israel Defense Forces said it attacked al-Shifa because Hamas had regrouped there.
The two-week operation saw heavy fighting and Israeli airstrikes on nearby buildings and the surrounding area.
The ward was attacked because it was used as a base by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, the IDF said, who fought inside the medical unit, detonated explosives and set the hospital building on fire. he accused.
Images released after Israel's withdrawal showed Palestinians carrying bodies wrapped in blankets near a charred main building with part of the wall missing. Graphic photographs showed bodies partially exposed in the agitated ground.
The Ministry of Health said dozens of bodies, some decomposed, had been found in and around the medical complex, which is now “completely closed.”
A doctor told AFP news agency that more than 20 bodies had been recovered, some crushed by retreating vehicles.
A spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run civilian emergency service said Israeli forces used bulldozers to dig up the compound's grounds and exhume buried bodies.
The Hamas government press office announced that Israeli forces killed 400 Palestinians in al-Shifa and surrounding areas, including a female doctor and her son, who was also a doctor. Israel has not yet commented.
The IDF said its forces had killed 200 “terrorists” and captured more than 900, more than 500 of whom were members of Hamas, banned as a terrorist organization by Israel, Britain and other countries, and the Palestinians. It was announced that he was found to be participating in Islamic Jihad. It added that the suspects have been transferred to intelligence agencies for further questioning.
“Troops discovered large quantities of weapons and intelligence documents inside the hospital, encountered terrorists in close quarters combat, and fought while avoiding harm to medical staff and patients,” the IDF said.
An Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson said there were more than 6,000 people inside the hospital complex at the start of the attack, most of them civilians.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Sunday night that 21 patients had died after being transferred multiple times and being detained without receiving treatment.
Patient Bara al-Shawish told Reuters that the Israeli military had allowed him to bring in “a very small amount of food.” “There was no treatment, there was no medicine, the bombing continued around the clock, and the hospital was severely destroyed,” he said.
A doctor in Al Shifa told Reuters that some patients were being taken to Al Ahly Hospital, about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) to the southeast.
Gaza's hospitals have become a major focus of the current war, with thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter from Israeli shelling on the premises and Israeli forces attacking the facilities due to the presence of Hamas fighters. are attacking.
Israel has long accused Hamas of using civilian medical infrastructure as cover for its operations, a charge Hamas denies.
Two weeks ago, hundreds of Israeli troops approached the Gaza Strip's largest hospital, taking just a few hours to enter. This was in sharp contrast to the controversial first attack there in November. It took several weeks for large numbers of tanks and vehicles to arrive on the scene, supported by heavy air strikes.
For supporters of the Israeli army, this served as evidence of the gains made by the Israeli army during the war and of its tactical success in launching surprise attacks on the enemy and hitting them hard. An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson previously described the operation as “one of the most successful operations of the war so far” due to the intelligence gathered and the number of deaths and prisoners.
But some commentators have suggested that the second al-Shifa attack highlights flaws in Israel's war strategy. This is due to the ease with which Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters were able to reunite after Israel withdrew its forces from northern Gaza, and the urgency to develop a convincing post-war plan to govern the area. They argue that this shows the need for
Gaza's Ministry of Health on Monday appealed for international support to restart medical care at Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. The largest hospital in southern Gaza has been out of commission since Israeli forces attacked it in February.
The war began on October 7 when Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli counts. Approximately 130 of the hostages remain in captivity, and at least 34 of them are estimated to have died.
More than 32,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 75,000 injured in Gaza since Israel began its military operation, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. Seventy percent of those killed were women and children.