The Civil Defense in Gaza has said that hundreds of bodies were found after the Israeli army withdrew at dawn on Monday from the Al-Shifa Medical Complex and its surrounding in Gaza city, after a two-week siege.

Gaza Civil Defense spokesman, Major Mahmoud Basal, said on Monday that, following the Israeli withdrawal, about 300 bodies were found in the Shifa complex and its surroundings.

Basal added that the Israeli forces burned entire departments of the hospital, and destroyed all medical equipment and supplies.

For its part, the Israeli army announced the end of its military operation in the complex and claimed that it was conducted without causing harm to civilians, patients, and medical teams.

Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that, following the withdrawal, Israeli occupation forces headed south, to an area between the Sheikh Ajlin and Tal Al-Hawa neighborhoods.

The correspondent quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the withdrawal was sudden and coincided with gunfire and the firing of tank shells towards residential buildings in the vicinity of the medical complex.

The withdrawal came after an Israeli attack on the complex and its surroundings that lasted for about two weeks and led to the killing, wounding and detention of hundreds of Palestinians.

Charred Bodies and Destruction

“Dozens of bodies, some of them decomposed, have been recovered from in and around the Al-Shifa medical complex,” the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said, adding that the hospital was now “completely out of service”.

Footage published by Al-Jazeera showed charred bodies of Palestinians in the streets and roads surrounding the complex.

Medical sources confirmed that hundreds of bodies were found in the complex and the streets surrounding it following the withdrawal of the occupation forces.

The sources said that the occupation forces burned several buildings of the medical complex, stressing that the extent of the destruction is massive.

During the storming, Israeli forces reportedly carried out several executions inside the medical complex.

Additionally, it obstructed the arrival of relief teams and representatives of international organizations to the area to carry out humanitarian missions or evacuation operations.

‘Open Humanitarian Corridor’

Hours before the withdrawal of the occupation forces, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called on Israel to open a humanitarian corridor to the complex and facilitate access to it urgently so that the organization and its partners can evacuate and rescue patients.

“We urge Israel to urgently facilitate access and a humanitarian corridor so WHO and partners can carry out the lifesaving transfer of patients,” Tedros said on X on Sunday.

He added that 21 patients have died since Al-Shifa Hospital came under siege on March 18, with hostilities continuing in its vicinity according to updates from a health worker at the facility.

“107 patients are in an inadequate building, within the hospital compound, lacking needed health support, medical care and supplies. Patients have been moved multiple times within the hospital compound since the siege began.”

“Among the patients are 4 children and 28 critical patients lacking necessary means of care – no diapers, urine bags, water to clean wounds. Many have infected wounds and are dehydrated,” he added.

Gaza Genocide

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7. 

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 32,782 Palestinians have been killed, and 75,298 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. 

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

 The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba. 

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire.’

(The Palestine Chronicle)