It was the second operation on the site of the largest clinic in the Gaza Strip. After two weeks, Israeli tanks have now left the Al-Shifa Clinic area. Apparently many bodies were found there.
The Israeli army has apparently withdrawn tanks from the Al-Shifa hospital complex in the Gaza Strip. A journalist from the AFP news agency, who was near the clinic, observed tanks and vehicles leaving the area in the morning. The military confirmed the withdrawal. The troops left the area after a “precise operational activity”.
A doctor told AFP more than 20 bodies had been recovered. Some of them were run over by departing vehicles. The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the militant Islamist Hamas, spoke of 300 bodies being found. There is also very large property damage.
Residents told the AP news agency that the area had been “totally destroyed.” Several buildings burned down. Hundreds of people returned to the area around the clinic in the morning and found bodies in the building and in the immediate vicinity.
A resident reported that there were still patients, staff and people in the hospital who had sought refuge from the hostilities there. Army bulldozers plowed up a makeshift cemetery on the hospital grounds. “The situation is indescribable,” he said. “The occupation has destroyed all life here.”
Israel’s second deployment to the clinic
On March 18, the Israeli army launched a major operation in Al-Shifa Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip, the largest clinic in the coastal region. According to Israeli information, the operation was directed against high-ranking Hamas members in the complex in the city of Gaza. Israel’s army said the operation was one of the most successful during the war, which has now been raging for almost six months.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that more than 200 armed people had been killed in the area around the clinic. Published recordings showed weapons and money seized in the hospital complex that were used by Hamas and the militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad.
According to Israel Command center Hamas in clinic
Israel accuses Hamas of setting up a command center on the site of the clinic. The US government agreed with this assessment in November. Israel accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields and civilian facilities such as hospitals and schools for its infrastructure, including as command centers and weapons depots. Hamas denies this.
The Israeli armed forces had already carried out an operation at the Al-Shifa clinic in November. Critics accuse Israel of recklessly endangering civilians and damaging medical facilities that are already overstretched due to the large number of injured people.
Clemens Verenkotte, ARD Tel Aviv, tagesschau, April 1, 2024 8:09 a.m