Israeli troops leave Gaza's Shifa Hospital a wreck in sea of rubble
Burnt beds lie on the floor at Al Shifa Hospital after Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital and the area around it following a two-week operation, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City April 1, 2024. PHOTO: REUTERS
Israeli forces have withdrawn from Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after a two-week operation, the Israeli military said on Monday, leaving behind a wasteland of destroyed buildings and Palestinian bodies scattered in the dirt of the complex.
Hundreds of residents rushed to the area around Gaza's largest hospital to check on damage to surrounding residential districts after fighting between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas that administers Gaza.
The Israeli military said it had killed and detained hundreds of gunmen in clashes in the area of the hospital and seized weaponry and intelligence documents. Hamas and medical staff deny that Palestinian fighters have any armed presence in hospitals.
A spokesperson for Gaza's Civil Emergency Service said Israeli forces had executed two people whose bodies were found at the complex in handcuffs, and used bulldozers to dig up the grounds of the complex and exhume buried bodies.
Reuters could not verify the allegation of executions and Israel's military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Footage circulated on social media and not yet verified by Reuters showed the bodies of dead Palestinians, some covered in dirty blankets, scattered on the ground around the charred hulk of the hospital building, many of whose outer walls were missing.
It showed the grounds heavily ploughed up, and numerous buildings outside the facility either flattened or burned down.
"I haven't stopped crying since I arrived here, horrible massacres were committed by the occupation here," said Samir Basel, 43, speaking to Reuters via a chat app as he toured Al Shifa.
"The place is destroyed, buildings have been burnt and destroyed. This place needs to be rebuilt - there is no Shifa hospital anymore."
Israel said operations inside Al Shifa had been conducted "while preventing harm to civilians, patients, and medical teams".
Gaza media office said Israeli forces killed 400 Palestinians in the area of Al Shifa, including a woman doctor and her son, also a doctor, and put the medical facility out of function. There was no immediate Israeli comment.
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 63 in the past 24 hours, in Israel's military offensive in Gaza since October 7 last year.
The war erupted after Hamas fighters broke through the border and rampaged through settler-occupied communities in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 captives, according to Israeli tallies.
Meanwhile, in Egypt, mediators held talks with Israeli officials in a bid to bridge gaps between the positions of Hamas and Israel over reaching a ceasefire. But a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort told Reuters: "There has been no sign of a breakthrough."