By Muhammed Majid
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - The Palestinian group Hamas said Tuesday that ongoing search operations at the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City and its surroundings have uncovered atrocities committed by the Israeli army following its withdrawal.
The army withdrew from the hospital earlier this month after a two-week military operation, leaving behind massive destruction and scores of bodies.
"Ongoing search efforts at the hospital after the withdrawal of the occupying army continue to reveal further atrocities committed within it,'' Hamas said in a statement.
''Civil defense teams have recovered hundreds of bodies from the complex and its surroundings buried by the occupation under the rubble in an attempt to conceal its crimes in the hospital,'' the statement added.
Palestinian civil defense teams have recovered the bodies of 409 people since Israeli troops withdrew from Al-Shifa Hospital and the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas, which killed nearly 1,200 people.
Israel has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians since an Oct. 7 cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas which claimed 1,200 lives.
Much of Gaza's infrastructure has since been destroyed and 1.9 million residents forcibly displaced, leaving them at risk of disease and famine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul