Israeli forces announced on Monday that they had withdrawn from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City after a two-week assault that killed about 200 Palestinians and arrested hundreds. The military left widespread devastation after a prolonged gunfight with Palestinian militants in and around the complex.
Taysir Al Tanna, a longtime vascular surgeon at Al Shifa, said many of the hospital’s main buildings, including the emergency, maternity and surgical wards, were heavily damaged in the fighting, and the main gate was destroyed.
“Right now it’s like a wasteland,” Dr Al Tanna said.
Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense Authority, said bodies were scattered in and around the complex. He said the final death toll remained unclear as some bodies were found under the rubble of destroyed buildings or were believed to have been buried.
“Even outside the complex itself, there are blocks of buildings that have been knocked to the ground, and people are looking for occupants among the rubble,” Bassal said.
The Israeli military has said that about 200 of the Palestinians it killed were militants, and that its soldiers have arrested about 900 suspected militants in the Shifa complex in the past two weeks, including This includes leaders of organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and eight others were injured in the attack.
Israeli military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari blamed the destruction on the militants, saying they had fortified themselves inside the hospital ward, fired on soldiers and rejected calls to surrender. “We had to fire into the building to stop it and kill the terrorists,” he said.
Admiral Hagari said the Israeli military evacuated civilians and some patients who had taken shelter inside the compound, and placed other patients in buildings away from the fighting. The World Health Organization said Sunday that at least 21 patients have died since the Israeli offensive began in mid-March, although the cause of death is unknown. The Gaza Ministry of Health said in a statement that by the end of this week, only 107 patients remained, 30 of them bedridden, with drinking water and minimal medication.
Israeli forces first stormed al-Shifa in November, claiming that Hamas militants had built a command center in tunnels beneath it. Hamas and his hospital director claimed that the facility was exclusively a place of refuge for civilians.
The Israeli military has since released some evidence to back up its claims, including showing reporters a fortified tunnel built beneath the hospital grounds. A New York Times investigation suggested that Hamas used the site as a hiding place and stored weapons. Critics argue that Israel has failed to substantiate its initial claims about al-Shifa’s military value.
After just over a week, Israeli forces withdrew following a brief ceasefire. But as the war escalated, Israeli forces approached the hospital again in mid-March in an attempt to stamp out a new uprising by Palestinian militants in northern Gaza.
“Hamas and Islamic Jihad are beginning to rebuild in the north,” Admiral Hagari said. “And they established themselves again within Shifa.”
Hamas did not comment on the new allegations that it was using the hospital as a base, but in a statement it accused Israeli forces of summarily executing Palestinians inside. The group’s armed wing has repeatedly said its militants have been fighting Israeli forces around al-Shifa over the past two weeks.
Hamas claimed the destruction of the hospital was a “horrible crime” committed by Israel “with the full and unrestricted support of the administration of US President Joe Biden.”
According to Admiral Hagari, before the first Israeli invasion, Israel notified the hospital more than a week before troops entered the facility, giving militants hiding there a chance to escape. This time, Israeli forces launched a surprise attack and stormed the area in the middle of the night, he added.
Israeli army chief of staff Helzi Halevi, who visited al-Shifa on Saturday, declared the raid “very successful.” Lt. Gen. Halevi said the operation made the militant group realize that “hospitals are not safe places.”
