By entering Al-Shifa, the main hospital in Gaza, on Wednesday, November 15, the Israeli army informed the last Palestinians still present in this city that they no longer had any refuge there. It was not a formal military assault that the soldiers engaged in, contrary to what the displaced people feared, who have left the establishment by the hundreds since its partial encirclement on November 10. It’s an intimidation operation. By emptying the hospital, the army is attacking the nerve center of a city which had a million inhabitants before the war, and which is today largely depopulated and destined for ruin.
Six weeks of massive and indiscriminate bombardments, then a land operation carried out slowly and methodically, from October 13, have already partly destroyed this coastal town, which was until the 9the century a crossroads of trade routes from the East to the Mediterranean, and which today finds its face of 1917, at the end of a trench war during which Turkish and British artillery had razed the city. As of November 16, health authorities in the enclave, formerly administered by Hamas, counted at least 11,000 dead and 1.6 million displaced.
Israeli tanks entered Al-Shifa, located near the seafront on the southern flank of the Al-Shati refugee camp, which the army took control of on Tuesday morning, around 2 a.m. As of Thursday morning, soldiers were still there, according to the army’s main spokesman, Daniel Hagari. They were to continue their search, having so far failed to provide proof that the basements of the hospital house a major Hamas military base – something the establishment’s management denies. The army on Wednesday only released images of some infantry equipment (automatic weapons, grenades, bulletproof vests and Hamas insignia).
The hospital has largely ceased to function
The soldiers first entered an emergency surgery department, before deploying to the one dedicated to medical imaging and radiology, chasing out medical staff and patients, searching and questioning the men. “The soldiers are in our building and in the courtyardexplained during the day to World by telephone a caregiver, who prefers to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from the Israeli army. Some civilians were arrested by the army. We, the caregivers, were not apprehended. »
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