Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza's largest hospital

2024-04-01 13:02:09, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Israeli army withdrew from Gaza's largest hospital early Monday after a two-week raid, leaving behind several bodies and extensive destruction, according to Palestinian residents.

The army has described the raid on the Shifa hospital as one of the most successful operations of the nearly six-month war.

They said they have killed many members of Hamas, the Palestinian group designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, and other militants, including senior operatives.

The military said it seized weapons and valuable intelligence, and confirmed that forces had withdrawn on Monday.

The UN health agency said several patients died and dozens were endangered during the raid, which brought more destruction to an already defunct hospital. Days of fierce fighting showed that Hamas can still hold out even in one of the hardest-hit areas of Gaza.

Mohammed Mahdi, who was among hundreds of Palestinians who returned to the area, described a scene of "total destruction". He said several buildings had burned and he counted six bodies in the area, including two in the hospital yard.

Images circulating online showed damaged and badly burned buildings, piles of dirt being piled up by bulldozers and patients on stretchers in darkened corridors.

Another resident, Yahia Abu Auf, said there were still patients, medical workers and displaced people sheltering inside the medical complex after some patients had been taken to the nearby Ahli Hospital. He said army bulldozers had plowed over a makeshift cemetery in Shifa's yard.

"The situation is indescribable," he said. "The occupation destroyed the whole sense of life here."

Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes and has raided several medical facilities. He says he launched the raid in Shifa after Hamas and other militants had regrouped there.

Health officials in Gaza deny the allegations. Critics accuse the military of recklessly endangering civilians and destroying a health sector already overburdened with war-wounded. Palestinians say Israeli troops forcibly evacuated homes near Shifa hospital in central Gaza City and forced hundreds of residents to march south.

At least 21 patients have died since the raid began, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted late Sunday on X, formerly Twitter.

He said over a hundred patients were still inside the compound, including four children and 28 patients in critical condition. He also said there were no diapers, urine bags or water to clean wounds and that many patients suffered from infected wounds and dehydration.

The army previously raided Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital, in November after it said Hamas maintained a command and control center inside and below the compound.

Israeli forces discovered a tunnel running under the hospital that led to several rooms, as well as weapons it said it had seized from inside medical buildings, but nothing on the scale it had claimed before the raid.

The war began on October 7, when Hamas-led militants entered southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 people hostage.

Israel responded with an air, ground and naval offensive that has killed at least 32,782 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up about two-thirds of those killed.

The Israeli military says it has killed more than 13,000 Hamas fighters and blames Palestinian militants for the civilian toll because they fight in densely populated areas.

The war has displaced the majority of the territory's population and brought a third of its inhabitants to the brink of starvation. Northern Gaza, where Shifa is located, has suffered major devastation and has been largely isolated since October, leading to widespread starvation.

Israel said late last year it had largely dismantled Hamas in northern Gaza and withdrawn thousands of troops. But it has battled militants there on a number of occasions since then, and two weeks of heavy fighting around Shifa highlighted the armed groups' staying power./ REL