The Israeli army announced this Monday that it had “completed” its operations in the area of the al-Shifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, which it entered two weeks ago. “The troops completed an operational activity in the Shifa hospital area and left the hospital area” on the night of Sunday to Monday, the army said in a statement, adding that they “killed terrorists during of clashes.”
International law states that even if a medical facility is a protected site in the event of conflict, it loses that status if it is used for military purposes. In mid-November, Israeli forces caused an international outcry by entering the hospital for the first time, while thousands of civilians were taking refuge there. Images of the evacuation of Al-Shifa three days after the start of the raid went around the world. More than 2,300 patients, staff and displaced people had to be evacuated in dramatic conditions.
A withdrawal made during the night
“IDF and Shin Bet forces completed the operation this morning in the area of Shifa Hospital. The forces of Sheitat 13, the combat team of the 401st brigade and the Nahal patrol under the command of the 162nd division left the hospital area,” the IDF said on the social network X. An AFP journalist and witnesses on site saw tanks and vehicles withdrawing, under the cover of artillery fire and airstrikes.
According to the Israeli news site Walla, after the first IDF operation in the hospital in mid-November, the idea had spread among Hamas leaders that Israel considered that it had definitively cleaned the place and that the army would not ‘wouldn’t come back. The Islamist movement would therefore have called for people to gather in the establishment, under cover. Hence the speed with which the second raid was organized, and the area very quickly surrounded by Division 162.
Last week, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for the Israeli army, affirmed that Hamas was “destroying Shifa Hospital” by making it a command and fallback center for its men and weapons. Violent fighting raged. According to Hagari, Hamas then fired on Israeli troops from inside the emergency room and maternity ward, and threw explosive devices from the burn ward.
Many Hamas fighters eliminated or arrested
The army’s second raid, which began on March 18, was carried out “while avoiding harm to civilians, patients and medical teams,” the IDF assured. More than 6,000 civilians were evacuated from the hospital located in Gaza City, in the center of the Palestinian enclave.
More than 200 Hamas fighters were killed, and another 500 arrested, “including senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad commanders,” among the 900 people arrested, according to Israeli Army Radio.
A hospital now out of service, despite the presence of a few patients
Eyewitnesses described scenes of destruction this Monday around the establishment, which seemed to be out of order, and numerous bodies abandoned on the scene. Several buildings were reportedly set on fire, others razed by army bulldozers. “The situation is indescribable,” one resident told the Times of Israel newspaper.
“Dozens of bodies of martyrs, some in a state of decomposition, were found in the compound and around the hospital,” said the health ministry of Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007. A doctor told AFP that more than 20 bodies had been found. According to him, some of the bodies were run over by military vehicles during their withdrawal.
On Sunday, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, indicated that 21 patients had died since the start of the Israeli operation there, where hundreds of displaced people had again found refuge . According to him, 107 patients are still in the hospital, including four children and 28 patients in critical condition, and since Saturday, “there is only one bottle of water left for 15 people.”
Washington will contact the Israeli government
The White House ruled on Monday that if verified, the information on the bodies found at al-Shifa hospital, from which the Israeli army has just withdrawn after two weeks of offensive, was “very worrying.” according to its spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre. Washington will “contact the Israeli government for more information”, she added, after doctors and civilians present in the complex declared that at least 20 bodies had been found, some of which appeared to have been driven over by military vehicles.