The Israeli army announced Monday 1er April have “completed” operations in the area of Al-Shifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, and withdrew from this area two weeks after entering it. “The troops completed operational activity in the Al-Shifa Hospital area and left the hospital area”, the army said in a statement, adding having “killed terrorists during clashes”. An Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist and witnesses saw tanks and vehicles leaving the hospital, covered by artillery fire and airstrikes.
The Hamas health ministry confirmed the withdrawal. “Dozens of bodies of martyrs, some in a state of decomposition, were found in and around Al-Shifa hospital”he said in a press release, specifying that the material damage was “very important”. According to a doctor interviewed by AFP, more than 20 bodies were recovered. According to him, some were crushed by military vehicles leaving the area.
At least 21 patients dead in hospital, according to WHO
The Israeli army, which accuses Hamas fighters of hiding in hospitals, launched on March 18 what it described as a “precise operation” in Al-Shifa. She has since announced that she “eliminated around 200 terrorists” in the area. The operation began when hundreds of displaced people had found refuge within the hospital grounds.
On Sunday, the Israeli army claimed to have discovered “many weapons hidden in pillows, beds” or even the ceilings of the hospital complex. The same day, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared that 21 patients at the hospital had died since the start of the Israeli operation. According to him, there were 107 patients in this hospital, including four children and 28 patients in critical condition. “Many have infected wounds and are dehydrated” and, since Saturday, “only one bottle of water left for 15 people”he added on X.
New bombings
Nearly six months after the start of the war triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement in the south of the Hebrew state, the Israeli offensive knows no respite in the besieged Gaza Strip, with a heavy toll of 32,782 deaths, according to Hamas, a humanitarian catastrophe and immense destruction.
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an attack in southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. . According to Israel, around 250 people were also kidnapped and 130 of them are still held hostage, including 34 who died, in the Gaza Strip.
In retaliation, the Israeli army launched a campaign of intense aerial bombardments in the enclave, followed by a ground offensive which allowed its soldiers to advance from north to south, up to the gates of Rafah. The Israeli army announced Monday that 600 of its soldiers had been killed since October 7, including 256 in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian territory was battered on Sunday by new Israeli strikes, one of which targeted a hospital, according to the UN. According to the director of the WHO, a UN agency, “a camp on the grounds of Al-Aqsa hospital was hit by an Israeli airstrike”, leaving four dead. At the time of the strike, a WHO team was on a mission to this hospital in Deir Al-Balah (center), said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on X. The Israeli army, for its part, reported a “precise strike against an operational command center of Islamic Jihad and terrorists positioned in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital”.
A truce agreement between Israel and Hamas is still not on the table, despite calls from international organizations, which fear famine for the majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants of the besieged Gaza Strip. “There is no question of a new round of negotiations yet”wrote Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official, in a press release released on Sunday.
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In recent months, indirect discussions through international mediators – Egypt, Qatar, United States – have been held in Doha and Cairo. Mr. Netanyahu had accused Hamas of having “hardened” his position with a view to a truce, while Israel has, according to him, made “show of flexibility”.