A damaged and burned-out building. The facade still says ‘Specialized Operations’ in silver letters. Hundreds of people stand on large piles of sand in the courtyard of what was once the main hospital complex in Gaza. The dead are carried from what remains of the buildings.
After a two-week siege, the Israeli army has withdrawn from the Al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City. Video footage showed the destruction of the complex on Monday. There is “total destruction,” correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul told Al Jazeera news channel. “There is no life here.”
The hospital is no longer operational, medical equipment is broken, and the search for the dead continues. Images, which cannot be independently verified by NRC, show that there are several decomposing and badly mutilated corpses in and around the hospital. Some bodies buried in the courtyard were run over by bulldozers, Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif reported.
No healthcare resources
According to the Hamas media office in Gaza, more than four hundred people were killed in the siege. There were also many displaced people in the hospital. The director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, wrote on Sunday on X that 21 patients have died. 107 patients are still in an inadequate building.
“Among the patients are four children and 28 critical patients who do not have the necessary care aids – no diapers, urine bags, water to clean wounds. Many of them have infected wounds and are dehydrated.”
Left satellite image of Al-Shifa Hospital June 1, 2022 and right into the hospital April 1, 2024. Satellite image Maxar via Reuters
According to the Israeli army, Hamas fighters were in Al-Shifa hospital and two hundred of them were killed and five hundred arrested. This is denied by hospital staff and Hamas.
The hospital was also besieged in November. There was no evidence at the time of military use of the hospital by Hamas, research by the The Washington Post.
Paralyzed condition
During the siege of Al-Shifa Hospital, which began on March 18, fighting took place in the area surrounding the hospital. “Anyone who comes near the hospital will be shot at,” Islam Bader, correspondent for the Arabic channel Al Araby, told NRC by telephone from Gaza City.
Bader spoke with eyewitnesses from the hospital and in the neighborhoods surrounding the complex. They told him about forced evacuations, arrests, torture and executions in the vicinity of the hospital. There was also constant intimidation through loudspeakers by the Israeli army. “Sometimes they were told to stay in their homes, other times they were told to leave.”
In the neighborhoods surrounding the hospital, residents were in “a paralyzed state,” Bader said. “Many people are stuck in houses, without food, and no one can contact them.”
Only ten still operational
Israel has repeatedly besieged hospitals in Gaza in recent months, always arguing that Hamas fighters are hiding there. Only ten of the 36 hospitals are now partially operational. Human rights organizations want an investigation into whether war crimes have been committed in the Israeli attacks on hospitals in Gaza.
The death toll in Gaza has now risen to more than 32,800, according to the Gaza health ministry. It is estimated that the actual death toll is much higher, because many people are still missing or buried under the rubble.
Photos Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
In Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the Nasser Hospital and Al-Amal Hospital were put out of service last month due to the sieges. The Palestinian Ministry of Health on Monday appealed for international assistance to resume services at Nasser Hospital.
One of the last functioning hospitals in southern Gaza is the European Hospital in Khan Younis. Dutch physiotherapist Brigitte Hoeben has been working there for the International Red Cross since the end of February. She helps with the postoperative rehabilitation of seriously injured war victims, she says by telephone. Like an eighteen-year-old man from Khan Younis who lost his entire leg in an explosion and suffered wounds to the other leg. “He said with sadness how sporty he always was,” says Hoeben.
The hospital is overcrowded, says Hoeben. In addition to staff and patients, more than 21,000 displaced Palestinians reside on the hospital grounds. “I spoke to a doctor here who has been working every day from morning to evening for six months. Some of the medical staff have fled from other parts of Gaza and work here on a voluntary basis in exchange for shelter and food. Everyone is exhausted and traumatized.”
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