Israel destroys Shifa Hospital and leaves it out of service: “There are burned skeletons”

The Israeli Army announced this April 1st the withdrawal of its troops from the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, after two weeks of assault that has left a trail of destruction with many burned buildings, while the Gazan authorities have reported charred bodies and in decomposition in the center, which has been out of service.

“Israeli forces completed their precise operational activities around Shifa Hospital and left the hospital area,” confirmed a military statement, after Palestinian eyewitnesses confirmed to EFE the withdrawal of the troops around 4:30 a.m. (1:30 GMT).

During its operations at the hospital, which began two weeks ago with the siege of the center, Israel claims to have eliminated some 200 “terrorists” and interrogated some 900 suspects, among whom it identified more than 500 members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. , including senior officials.

The Shifa hospital, the largest in the entire Strip and one of the few in the north that was partially functional, has been completely out of service after two weeks of military operation.

“The destruction of the complex makes it impossible to resume work and the hospital has been out of service,” stated the director of Shifa, Marwan Abu Saada.

Images released of the state of Shifa Hospital following the withdrawal of Israeli forces show a wide trail of destruction across the area, with buildings destroyed and large parts of the medical complex charred by intense fire from the attacks for two weeks.

The spokesman for the Gaza Civil Defense, Mahmud Busal, reported that, after the departure of the Israeli troops, they found corpses inside the hospital with signs of having been executed, others burned and also in a state of decomposition.

“Most of the bodies are decomposing and we arrive at bodies that are burned skeletons within the medical complex,” said Busal, who noted that it is difficult to count the victims because Israeli troops “raised the streets with backhoes and buried the bodies.”

While waiting for that count, the total number of deaths in almost six months of war exceeded 32,800 and the wounded exceeded 74,500.

The Ministry of Health of the Strip, controlled by Hamas, indicated yesterday that the two weeks of military operation in the area of ​​​​Shifa had claimed at least 400 lives during the destruction of more than a thousand homes in the surrounding area, without a count of victims within the medical complex.

There were 107 patients left inside the facility “in inhumane conditions, without water, medicine, food or electricity,” including 30 disabled people and about 60 members of medical staff.

Among them, a wounded and sick person with diabetes, a survivor of this new assault on the Shifa, reported that he had not received any medical treatment in 15 days and that he was transferred several times from one apartment to another while “the sounds of the explosions did not stop.” .

“I can’t believe he’s still alive,” he said in a video released by the Strip’s health authorities.

Another survivor says that he was lying in his bed when in the early hours of the morning, two weeks ago, Israeli troops stormed the hospital “under cover of fire and violent shelling.”

“There were no red lines in the murders or torture, they resorted to the most atrocious and humiliating ways against us. They shot over our heads just for fun,” he pointed.

This was its fourth incursion against one of the few hospitals that remained partially operational in the north of the Strip, which Israel justified after receiving “precise intelligence information” about the presence of militiamen inside the complex.
“It has been one of the Army’s most successful operations within the Strip, due to the high number of terrorist operatives that we have eliminated or captured, many more than we initially thought,” said Army spokesman Daniel Hagari.

The spokesman insisted that Israeli forces did everything possible to minimize damage to civilians and that they evacuated more than 300 patients.

“The horrendous crime committed by the occupation in the Shifa complex confirms the nature of this fascist entity that distances itself from the values ​​of civilization and humanity”lamented the Islamist group Hamas, which de facto governs the Strip.

The Ministry of Health also denounced that the Nasser hospital, the main hospital in Khan Yunis, in the south, which has been under siege by Israeli troops for more than a week, is on the verge of collapse and asked international institutions to act.

“The Nasser being taken out of service is a serious blow to health services, which have been reduced to their lowest levels, especially after the loss of most medical services in the north,” he said.

Faced with the “almost total paralysis” of the health system, the ministry called for displaced people to no longer seek refuge in hospitals to limit them to the sick and injured, so that they can receive adequate treatment and avoid overcrowding and the spread of diseases.