Spokesmen for the Israel Protection Forces introduced a handful of overseas newshounds into the compound on Sunday afternoon, simply hours sooner than the endmost particular forces troops withdrew. A reporter and photographer from The Washington Submit have been there.
The IDF introduced a slender view — a pinhole, in point of fact — however what we noticed was once demolition on a large scale. Army censors didn’t assessment our phrases or pictures.
It’s crisp to overstate the use of al-Shifa, the place the dueling narratives of this conflict have converged.
The health center has served as a beacon of safe haven and resilience for Palestinians. The Israelis described it as a mustering level and command heart for terrorists who impaired the medical doctors and sufferers as human shields.
The group of workers who’ve toiled at al-Shifa stated they only sought after to deal with the unwell and wounded. “We are doctors: Our job is to treat people. We have nothing to do with this,” stated Amr Fawzi Jedbah, a 31-year-old vascular surgeon, who told to The Submit within the early days of the raid.
As we emerged from the windowless armored body of workers carriers that introduced us to the web site, the primary view was once sand, and, for a generation, there was once quietness. Gaza Town, extra rubble now than town, was once tranquility.
Later we heard small-arms hearth.
The compound smelled of our bodies. And decay. The whole thing that may be damaged, smashed or curved was once, upcoming 14 days of preventing. Dozens of warring parties have been killed, the IDF stated, however stated it might now not serve an exact depend. Some desperately sick sufferers have been evacuated; others, backup teams stated, died all through the siege.
Prior to this second offensive in opposition to al-Shifa, the health center was once nonetheless functioning, if simply slightly, upcoming a first raid by means of Israel infantrymen in November. When the March attack started two weeks in the past, there have been 6,000 society sheltering at the fields, in keeping with the IDF — sufferers, scientific group of workers and displaced households.
On Sunday, we didn’t see a unmarried Palestinian.
Within the central quad, there have been fresh sand dunes formed by means of bulldozers. Israeli armor and body of workers carriers encircled the complicated; troops moved briefly from spot to identify.
We have been instructed that Palestinian snipers remained within the department and {that a} handful of Hamas operatives would possibly nonetheless be shifting across the health center constructions, in response to night-vision sweeps of the compound.
We noticed handiest Israeli infantrymen. In a single dull room, a platoon of commandos slept at the ground beside hallways strewn with trash.
There have been sporadic bursts of computerized rifle hearth within the distance and what we guessed have been heavier rounds being fired. It was once vague who was once capturing, or at what.
The Israeli particular forces described close-quarter fight with determined warring parties from Hamas who have been taken by means of amaze and barricaded themselves in blank health center wards, together with elevator shafts and running rooms.
The Israelis stated two Palestinian militants, in confrontations, impaired grenades to execute themselves in what will be the first reported suicide bombings of this unedited Gaza war. This might now not be showed.
We have been hustled right into a mid-rise scientific place of business construction seized by means of Israeli Military SEALs, our masked escorts who guided us to the manage flooring to look the demolition beneath.
All the primary buildings of al-Shifa have been blasted and blackened, partitions lacking, shards of cement floor pulling in opposition to curved rebar.
Those constructions weren’t pancaked by means of weighty bombs, however centered by means of Israel’s breeze pressure moves, artillery hearth and miniature fingers. The construction that housed the Israeli commandos was once additionally was once pocked by means of bullet holes and shattered glass.
What the Israeli army described on the outset as a “precise operation” regarded extra like all-out city war.
We weren’t given get entry to to the endmost 140 Palestinians — group of workers and sufferers — that the IDF stated have been sheltering in a close-by construction, ready to be evacuated. The remains of the civilians had already been despatched to alternative scientific amenities, the army stated, or have been instructed to move south.
“There was no medical care or drinking water or food” for the primary 3 days of the raid, in keeping with Mohamed al-Sikafi, 18, who texted with The Submit endmost Tuesday upcoming making it out of al-Shifa to a close-by health center, one of the most few nonetheless functioning within the north. “There are many patients whose health conditions declined.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director normal of the Global Condition Group, wrote on X overdue Sunday that 21 sufferers had died at al-Shifa “since the hospital came under siege.” The IDF stated deny scientific group of workers or sufferers died as a “direct result” of the Israeli raid, including that some will have died of “natural causes.”
Newshounds have been resulted in an dull room for a briefing by means of a manage officer within the army particular operations unit referred to as Flotilla 13, one essentially the most secretive within the Israeli forces, well-known for the reason that settingup of the Jewish condition.
Col. “E” — we weren’t allowed to call him or {photograph} his face — described his undertaking: Explode or seize Hamas warring parties and backup the innocents.
The colonel stated that upcoming the Israeli forces left the health center upcoming the primary raid in November, Hamas warring parties streamed again into the complicated to soak up fingers, search refuge and blend with civilians.
“They go where they know,” the colonel stated, suggesting that during bombed-out Gaza Town, the al-Shifa complicated introduced refuge, meals, H2O, electrical energy and web provider.
Previous within the conflict, the IDF made a lot of the tunnels they discovered at the health center fields. They described a immense underground command and keep an eye on heart, a digital town. However definitive proof was once lacking. There have been obviously tunnels. However the place was once Hamas?
Because it seems, the Israeli commando colonel stressed out that the tunnel device would possibly not had been as notable as they as soon as concept. In lieu, the colonel stated, the Hamas operatives in contemporary months have been running above garden, inside of places of work and wards. The IDF confirmed footage of what they stated have been money, rifles, RPGs, grenades, mortars and a few Hamas paperwork discovered on-site.
Basem Naim, a Hamas professional, denied Sunday that militants have been the use of the health center as a staging garden, telling The Submit it was once “propaganda to justify the attack on our people.”
“Even if some Hamas members were present in the hospital as refugees,” he persisted, “does this justify destroying hospitals?”
Clinical group of workers mentioned many times that the complicated was once now not impaired for army functions. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a British Palestinian physician who spent a number of weeks tending to the wounded at al-Shifa endmost 12 months, stated Monday that his good friend and laborer Ahmad Maqadmeh, “a beautiful soul and a great surgeon,” was once a number of the lifeless.
“He refused to leave the north and kept sending me photos of his surgeries,” Abu Sitta wrote on Instagram. “He leaves behind a wife and baby.”
The Israeli colonel — and the IDF spokesman — each repeated that the al-Shifa offensive represented “a success and a tragedy.”
“It is a success that we struck Hamas so hard, that this was a brutal hit against them, that Hamas now tell us that they are ‘out of business’ in the north,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari stated. However he stated it was once a tragedy that Israeli infantrymen have been “forced” to wreck the health center constructions.
“We had no choice but to fight back,” stated the army particular forces commander.
Because the newshounds regarded out on the demolition, one among Hagari’s officials stated, “This is what they made us do.”
Because the starting of the raid, the IDF stated it has detained 900 suspected Hamas warring parties and that 540 had been despatched to Israel.
What number of Palestinians warring parties have been killed over two weeks of preventing? The IDF didn’t serve a precise determine. Hagari stated 40 have been killed. The commando chief stated “a few dozens.”
Deny demise toll has been supplied but by means of Palestinian government, who received get entry to to the web site once more on Monday because the Israelis withdrew. Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Protection, stated situation staff entered the compound at morning time.
“The scene here is one of the ugliest we have seen since October 7,” he stated. “The hospital has become completely unfit to be a medical center. The situation is tragic in every sense of the word.”
All the way through the offensive, the IDF stated it killed Faiq al-Mabhouh, whom Israel referred to as a commander within the Hamas interior safety forces. Hamas stated he was once a police commander charged with coordinating and protective backup deliveries.
“They consider that everyone who works with the government in Gaza is a Hamas activist and can be killed or arrested, even doctors, nurses, journalists and civilian police,” stated Naim, the Hamas professional.
The IDF stated it additionally “eliminated” a senior Hamas professional named Ra’advert Tabath, whom they described as a pace-setter of the gang’s provide traces.
IDF officials have described the raid at al-Shifa as a model for age motion in Gaza: intense however centered moves by means of commandos. One query, regardless that, is why this type of immense and damaging operation was once required.
The army claimed in overdue December it was once shut to inauguration “full operational control” of northern Gaza. Extra not too long ago, it said it had “dismantled” Hamas’s battalions within the north. It was once handiest herbal, the particular forces commander stated, that Hamas warring parties would regroup round al-Shifa.
Now, he stated, there was once deny health center left for them to go back to.
The newshounds piled again in armored body of workers carriers for the shuttle again to Israel. We blocked, with out blackmail, alongside the best way. The warriors instructed us they’d come throughout a folk of 4 Palestinians: a parents and two kids. Lets now not see them.
The warriors stated the folk have been in an department the place they weren’t allowed to be. They have been introduced H2O and a chocolate bar and later detained, we have been instructed; the daddy can be intently wondered. Hagari, the army spokesman, instructed us it was once the most efficient plan of action.
Had the folk proceeded in a no-go zone, he stated, the IDF infantrymen “could have shot them.”
Miriam Berger in Jerusalem, Hajar Harb in London and Hazem Balousha in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this document.
