Israeli army withdraws from Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital, leaving destruction, casualties behind

By Anadolu staff

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - The Israeli army withdrew from inside the Al-Shifa Hospital and the surrounding areas west of Gaza City early Monday, leaving scores of casualties and extensive destruction in the hospital and its vicinity.

The army fully withdrew from inside the hospital and the surrounding neighborhoods towards areas south of Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City, witnesses told Anadolu.

The Israeli forces burned all buildings in the hospital resulting in complete cessation of services, the witnesses added.

They also noted that the army destroyed the specialized surgery building and burned the main reception and emergency building.

Israeli forces also burned the buildings of the kidney and maternity wards, mortuary refrigerators, and cancer and burn facilities, and destroyed the outpatient clinic building, according to the witnesses.

According to Palestinian medical sources, the hospital is now completely out of service and the army destroyed all medical equipment in the complex, operation rooms, and intensive care units.

The witnesses reported that scores of scattered bodies were found in the hospital and in the streets surrounding it.

They explained that the army destroyed the makeshift cemetery established by Palestinians in the facility and removed the corpses from it, scattering them in various areas of the hospital.

They further noted that Israeli forces burned and destroyed many homes and residential buildings in the vicinity of the hospital.

The Israeli army raided the hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip that houses thousands of patients and displaced people, on March 18.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed some 1,200 people.

Nearly 32,800 Palestinians have since been killed and 75,300 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which on Thursday asked Israel to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio