Israeli army withdraws from al-Chifa hospital in Gaza, leaving destruction and corpses

Israeli soldiers withdrew from the al-Chifa hospital complex in Gaza on Monday after two weeks of operations, leaving behind immense destruction and corpses in this largest hospital in the Palestinian territory besieged and battered by nearly six months of war.

Israeli soldiers withdrew from the al-Chifa hospital complex in Gaza on Monday after two weeks of operations, leaving behind immense destruction and corpses in this largest hospital in the Palestinian territory besieged and battered by nearly six months of war.

As this conflict between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Israel continues to rage, the Hamas Ministry of Health announced the death of at least 60 people, mostly civilians, in Israeli nighttime bombings on the small strip of Palestinian land threatened with famine.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was operated on Sunday evening “successfully” for a hernia according to his office, while he has been challenged for two days in the street by thousands of demonstrators who are demanding his resignation and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Still in Israeli territory, police announced Monday that they had arrested the sister of Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh in the south where she lives, “suspected of having contacts with Hamas agents.

Buildings destroyed, charred or flattened, streets littered with rubble and large mounds of sand. AFP images show a landscape of devastation in the al-Chifa hospital complex in Gaza (north) stormed on March 18 by the army after accusing Hamas leaders of having hidden there.

On Monday, it announced its withdrawal after having “completed” its operations during which it killed more than 200 “terrorists”.

An AFP journalist and witnesses on site saw tanks and vehicles withdrawing, under the cover of artillery fire and airstrikes.

“Dozens of bodies of martyrs, some in a state of decomposition, were found in and around the al-Chifa hospital,” said the Hamas health ministry which took power in Gaza in 2007.

A doctor told AFP that more than 20 bodies had been found. According to him, some of the bodies were run over by military vehicles during their withdrawal.

On Sunday, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, indicated that 21 patients had died since the start of the Israeli operation in al-Chifa, where hundreds of displaced people had sought refuge . According to him, there are 107 patients left in this hospital, including four children and 28 patients in critical condition, and since Saturday, “there is only one bottle of water left for 15 people”.

The Israeli army had already carried out a similar operation in al-Chifa in November, accusing Hamas, which denies using this hospital as a command center.

Israeli troops are also carrying out operations in the areas of the Nasser and al-Amal hospitals in Khan Younes in the south, according to Hamas.

On Sunday, the head of the WHO said that a “camp within the al-Aqsa hospital compound was hit by an Israeli airstrike”, killing four people. The Israeli army claimed to have targeted “a terrorist operational command center” in the courtyard of this hospital in Deir al-Balah (center).

To date, Israeli operations have cost the lives of 32,782 people, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health and caused a humanitarian catastrophe and colossal destruction.

The Israeli army announced Monday that 600 of its soldiers had been killed since October 7, including 256 in the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Surprisingly, Israeli police announced that they had arrested Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh, the 57-year-old sister of the Hamas leader who has Israeli nationality, in her home in Tel Sheva in southern Israel. She is also suspected of “incitement to commit acts of terrorism in Israel”. His brother, Ismaïl Haniyeh, is based in Qatar.

It is in Qatar and Egypt where indirect discussions have taken place in recent months between Israel and Hamas via international mediators - Egypt, Qatar, United States - with a view to concluding a truce agreement associated with a release of hostages. But this agreement is far away, with the two protagonists accusing each other of intransigence.

And this despite calls from international organizations, warning of a risk of famine for the majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, subjected by Israel to a siege since October 9 and a total blockade since 2007.

In the evening, new demonstrations against the Netanyahu government are planned in Jerusalem. “Elections!”, Netanyahu “must go” and “Bring back (the hostages) now!” protesters gathered in front of Parliament in Jerusalem chanted on Sunday evening.