Israeli troopers withdrew from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza Metropolis after a two-week raid by which they killed round 200 Palestinians and arrested a whole lot of others, the Israeli army stated on Monday. The troops left widespread devastation of their wake after prolonged firefights with Palestinian militants in and across the complicated.
Taysir al-Tanna, a longtime vascular surgeon at Al-Shifa, stated lots of the hospital’s foremost buildings — together with the emergency, obstetrics and surgical wards — had been badly broken within the preventing, and the principle gate had been smashed.
“Now it seems to be like a wasteland,” Dr. al-Tanna stated.
Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Protection, stated our bodies had been scattered in and across the complicated. The ultimate demise toll remained unclear, he stated, as some corpses had been both underneath the rubble of destroyed buildings or had been believed to have been buried.
“Even outdoors the complicated itself, there are blocks of buildings that had been knocked to the bottom,” and folks had been looking for the occupants within the rubble, Mr. Basal stated.
The Israeli army stated the roughly 200 Palestinians it had killed had been militants, and that its troopers had arrested round 900 folks it suspected of being militants on the Shifa complicated over the previous two weeks, together with senior commanders in teams like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It stated two Israeli troopers had been killed and eight had been wounded within the raid.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli army spokesman, blamed the destruction on the militants, saying they’d fortified themselves inside hospital wards, fired on troopers and refused calls to give up. “We needed to fireplace on the buildings to be able to cease that and to kill the terrorists,” he stated.
Israeli forces evacuated displaced civilians sheltering within the compound in addition to some sufferers, and positioned different sufferers in a constructing away from the preventing, Admiral Hagari stated. The World Well being Group stated on Sunday that no less than 21 sufferers had died because the Israeli raid started in mid-March, although their causes of demise had been unclear. By this weekend, simply 107 sufferers remained — 30 of them bedridden — with out consuming water and with solely minimal medicine, the Gaza Well being Ministry stated in an announcement.
Israeli forces first raided Al-Shifa in November, sustaining that Hamas militants had constructed a command heart in tunnels beneath it. Hamas and the hospital director insisted the ability was solely a refuge for civilians.
The Israeli army later publicized some proof to assist its case, together with by exhibiting reporters a fortified tunnel constructed beneath the hospital grounds. An investigation by The New York Occasions instructed that Hamas had used the location for canopy and saved weapons there. Critics argue that Israel did not substantiate its authentic claims about Al-Shifa’s army worth.
After little greater than every week, Israeli troops withdrew in compliance with a quick cease-fire. However because the conflict floor on, Israeli forces closed in on the hospital once more in mid-March in an try to root out what they stated was a renewed insurgency by Palestinian armed teams in northern Gaza.
“Hamas and Islamic Jihad have began to rebuild themselves within the north,” stated Admiral Hagari. “And so they re-based themselves inside Shifa.”
Hamas has not commented on the brand new allegations that it was utilizing the hospital as a base, however in an announcement it accused the Israeli army of summarily executing Palestinians inside. The group’s armed wing has repeatedly stated that its militants had been preventing with the Israeli army round Al-Shifa over the previous two weeks.
Hamas known as the destruction on the hospital “a horrific crime” that Israel had perpetrated “with full and limitless assist from the administration of U.S. President Biden.”
Earlier than the primary Israeli incursion, Israel gave the hospital greater than every week’s discover forward of its forces coming into the complicated, giving militants hiding there a possibility to flee, Admiral Hagari stated. This time, Israeli troopers launched a shock assault, raiding the world in the midst of the night time, he added.
In a go to to Al-Shifa on Saturday, Herzi Halevi, the Israeli army chief of workers, declared the raid “extraordinarily profitable.” Lt. Gen. Halevi stated the operation had let militant teams know that “a hospital will not be a protected place” for them.
