‘Total destruction’ around al-Shifa hospital after Israeli army withdrawal

NOS News•today, 1:59 PM

The Israeli raid on Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital is over. The troops withdrew at dawn after a two-week operation, the army itself reported. Eyewitnesses and journalists on the scene say a trail of destruction has been left behind.

On March 18, troops entered the complex. The army spoke of a targeted raid with the aim of arresting leaders of terrorist groups. According to the military, around 200 members of Hamas and other terror groups have been killed and more than 500 people have been arrested in the past two weeks. It is impossible to determine whether they are indeed all militants. Weapons, valuable intelligence and cash worth $3 million were also found, according to Israel.

Hundreds of Palestinians returned to the area during the morning. Mohammed Mahdi told the American news agency AP that several buildings had burned down and that he saw at least six bodies on the ground. He speaks of “total devastation.”

See images from the hospital for yourself here:

This is what’s left of Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital

Another man, Yahia Abu Auf, said Israeli army bulldozers drove through a makeshift cemetery in the hospital courtyard. “The situation is indescribable.” Medical sources told Al Jazeera that dozens, possibly even hundreds, of bodies have been found in the hospital and in the streets surrounding it.

The destruction in the complex is extensive and the hospital can no longer function. “Buildings have been on fire in every department of the hospital,” said a reporter from the Arabic channel. “The complex has been damaged from the inside.” Stairs, doors and walls have been destroyed, he added. People are still trying to save items from the rubble. “There is no life here anymore.” According to him, the hospital, which has existed since 1946, appears to be damaged beyond repair.

An anonymous doctor told Al Jazeera that hospital staff did not have the ability to treat patients during the raid. “We couldn’t care for them or bury them,” she says. “The smell of corpses could be smelled throughout the building.”

Patient talks about situation in Al Shifa: ‘No medicine, no food’

At an earlier stage of the Israeli operation, some 350 patients and staff were evacuated to a special zone in part of the complex, where the people were offered humanitarian aid, according to the Israeli army.

Since the start of the raid two weeks ago, at least 21 patients have been killed, WHO CEO Ghebreyesus said last night. He said there were still more than 100 patients in the building, including four children and 28 people in serious condition. There were also few resources to care for them, the WHO said. It is unclear how those patients are doing today.

Al-Shifa was one of the few healthcare locations in the north of the Gaza Strip that was still partially operational. In addition to patients, the hospital also housed displaced Palestinians. Israel says Hamas has used the hospital as a base for terror purposes, which the militant movement denies.

The Israeli army already invaded the complex once in November. Israel then said it had found a “terror tunnel” under the hospital. Images purportedly showing the find were released, but could not be independently verified.

Israel said late last year that it had largely eliminated Hamas in northern Gaza, before moving the military operation to the south. However, there have been clashes with militants on several occasions since then. The fact that there was intensive fighting in and around al-Shifa for two weeks shows the resilience of the militant groups in the region, according to the AP news agency.