Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza hospital after 2-week raid
Assault on Al Shifa resulted in deaths of some 200 militants
DEIR AL-BALAH: Israel’s military withdrew from Gaza’s largest hospital early Monday after a two-week raid, in which it said it killed some 200 militants and detained hundreds more.
Palestinian residents said the troops left behind several bodies and a vast swath of destruction. The military has described the raid on Shifa Hospital as a major battlefield victory in the nearly six-month war. But it came at a time of mounting frustration in Israel, with tens of thousands protesting against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday and demanding he do more to bring home dozens of hostages held in Gaza.
It was the largest anti-government demonstration since the start of the war. The fighting showed that Hamas can still put up resistance even in one of the hardest-hit areas. Israel said it had largely dismantled Hamas in northern Gaza and withdrew thousands of troops late last year, leaving a security vacuum that has made it difficult to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid. A second shipment of food aid arrived by sea on Monday in the latest test of a new maritime route from the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus. One of the three boats could be seen off the coast, and Cyprus’ Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said they had received permission to offload. The precise mechanism of delivery was not yet clear.
The military said that among those killed at Shifa were senior Hamas operatives and other militants who had regrouped there after an earlier raid in November, and that it seized weapons and valuable intelligence.
The UN health agency said more than 20 patients died and dozens were put at risk during the raid, which brought even further destruction to a hospital that had already largely ceased to function. Bassel al-Hilou said the bodies of seven of his relatives had been found in the wreckage surrounding hospital. He said they sought shelter at a neighbour’s house after theirs was bombed, but another strike hit the home where they were staying.
“There was a massacre in my uncle’s house,” he told The Associated Press. “The situation was indescribable.” It was not yet known how many Palestinian civilians were killed during the raid. The military denied that its forces harmed any civilians inside the compound.