Israeli troops are withdrawing from Gaza’s largest hospital complex after a two-week intensive military operation against Hamas, leaving behind charred buildings and corpses in the sprawling compound.
The Israeli army carried out what it called “appropriate operational activities” for two weeks at the Al-Shifa compound in Gaza City, before saying on Monday its troops had withdrawn.
Israel says it has battled Palestinian militants inside the Palestinian territory’s largest hospital, killing at least 200 people and finding stockpiles of weapons, explosives and cash.
Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said Israel had “arrested more than 900 people suspected of involvement in terror activities”, and he said “more than 500” were “definitely” Hamas or Islamic Jihad militants.
“There are more terrorists in the hospital than patients or medical staff,” he said, adding there were about 300 patients, doctors and medical staff.
Hamas denies operating from Al-Shifa and other health facilities.
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A spokesman for Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed around 300 people in and around the hospital during the two-week operation.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said “the scale of destruction within the compound and surrounding buildings was enormous”.
“Dozens of bodies, some of them decomposed, have been found in and around the Al-Shifa medical complex,” he said, adding that the hospital was now “completely unusable”.
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Most hospitals in Gaza are no longer functioning, the UN says.
Very concerned
Several doctors and civilians at the damaged compound told AFP at least 20 bodies had been found, some of which appeared to have been taken by unscrupulous people.
Some were found near the western entrance of the complex, which Israeli soldiers use when departing from the hospital grounds.
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“Bodies… Tanks rushed at them. Destruction. Children. Innocent people. Unarmed civilians. They (soldiers) came at them,” said an eyewitness who asked not to be named.
An AFP correspondent saw one body that was decomposed and had tire marks, although it was not known when the body had rolled over.
The White House said it would press Israel for more information, calling the report “deeply concerning.”
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The military in recent days released footage of its fighters moving through hospital corridors, and images of large numbers of assault rifles, grenades and other weapons it said were recovered from the maternity ward.
The Hamas government press office said soldiers had blown up more than 20 houses within 24 hours in the main city of Khan Yunis in the south, where fighting also broke out around Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals.
Israeli street protests
The bloodiest war ever in Gaza erupted with an unprecedented Hamas offensive on October 7 that resulted in some 1,160 deaths in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
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Israel’s retaliatory campaign, aimed at destroying Hamas, has killed at least 32,845 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
In a statement, Hamas acknowledged the “fatigue” of Gazans, while vowing to continue fighting until it achieves “freedom” for Palestinians.
The Israeli military says 600 soldiers have been killed since the start of the war – including 256 in its ground invasion of Gaza since late October.
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The world’s Supreme Court has ordered Israel to “ensure urgent humanitarian assistance” in Gaza without delay, saying “famine is brewing”.
Foreign countries have increased air deliveries of aid, although UN agencies and charities warn that this is far from urgent needs and say that trucks are the most efficient way to deliver aid.
A second ship carrying aid goods by sea from Cyprus was seen off the coast of Gaza on Monday.
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Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained his “daily routine from the hospital”, his office said, following a hernia operation on Sunday.
He will be discharged on Tuesday afternoon, he added.
During their attacks on Israel, Palestinian militants also took around 250 people hostage. Israel believes around 130 people are still in Gaza, including 34 people thought to be dead.
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Netanyahu has come under increasing pressure from hostage families as well as anti-government protesters, whose nightly rallies have drawn thousands onto the streets.
On Monday, Netanyahu vowed to ban broadcasts from Israel by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel, after Israel’s Parliament gave him new powers. He called it a “terrorist channel.”
The broadcaster said the Israeli PM’s comments were a “dangerously ridiculous lie”.
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Attack on Damascus
The war in Gaza has raised fears of a wider regional conflict, with repeated violence linked to conflicts in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
Those fears were further heightened on Monday by an attack in Damascus on the consulate area of Israel’s arch enemy, Iran.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said 11 people were killed.
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The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said seven of its members were killed, including two senior officers, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Brigadier General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi.
Israel did not comment, but Iran vowed a “firm response” to the attack and called on the international community to act.
Hamas called the attack a “dangerous escalation”.
Zahedi – who according to Iranian state TV was part of the Revolutionary Guards’ overseas operation, the Quds Force – was one of a number of high-profile figures targeted by Israel during the Gaza war. (AFP/Z-3)
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