Spokesmen for the Israel Protection Forces introduced a handful of international journalists into the compound on Sunday afternoon, simply hours earlier than the final particular forces troops withdrew. A reporter and photographer from The Washington Put up have been there.
The IDF supplied a slender view — a pinhole, actually — however what we noticed was destruction on an enormous scale. Navy censors didn’t assessment our phrases or photographs.
It’s arduous to overstate the significance of al-Shifa, the place the dueling narratives of this battle have converged.
The hospital has served as a beacon of refuge and resilience for Palestinians. The Israelis described it as a mustering level and command heart for terrorists who used the medical doctors and sufferers as human shields.
The workers who’ve toiled at Shifa mentioned they only wished to take care of the sick and wounded. “We’re medical doctors, our job is to deal with folks, now we have nothing to do with this,” mentioned Amr Fawzi Jedbah, a 31-year-old vascular surgeon, who spoke to The Put up within the early days of the raid.
As we emerged from the windowless armored personnel carriers that introduced us to the positioning, the primary view was sand, and, for a second, there was silence. Gaza Metropolis, extra rubble now than metropolis, was quiet.
Then we heard small-arms fireplace.
The compound smelled of our bodies. And decay. The whole lot that might be damaged, smashed, twisted, was, after 14 days of combating. Dozens of fighters had been killed, the IDF mentioned, however mentioned it couldn’t present a exact rely. Some desperately unwell sufferers had been evacuated; others, help teams mentioned, died through the siege.
Earlier than this second offensive towards Shifa, the hospital was nonetheless functioning, if simply barely, after a first raid by Israel troopers in November. When the March assault started two weeks in the past, there have been 6,000 folks sheltering on the grounds, in accordance with the IDF — sufferers, medical workers and displaced households.
On Sunday, we didn’t see a single Palestinian.
Within the central quad, there have been new sand dunes formed by bulldozers. Israeli armor and personnel carriers encircled the complicated; troops moved shortly from spot to identify.
We have been informed that Palestinian snipers remained within the space and {that a} handful of Hamas operatives may nonetheless be transferring across the hospital buildings, primarily based on night-vision sweeps of the compound.
We noticed solely Israeli troopers. In a single darkened room, a platoon of commandos slept on the ground beside hallways strewn with trash.
There have been sporadic bursts of automated rifle fireplace within the distance and what we guessed have been heavier rounds being fired. It was unclear who was taking pictures, or at what.
The Israeli particular forces described close-quarter fight with determined fighters from Hamas who had been taken without warning and barricaded themselves in emptied hospital wards, together with elevator shafts and working rooms.
The Israelis mentioned two Palestinian militants, in confrontations, used grenades to kill themselves in what could be the primary reported suicide bombings of this newest Gaza battle. This might not be confirmed.
We have been hustled right into a mid-rise medical workplace constructing seized by Israeli Navy SEALs, our masked escorts who guided us to the highest flooring to see the destruction under.
All the primary constructions of al-Shifa have been blasted and blackened, partitions lacking, shards of cement flooring pulling towards twisted rebar.
These buildings weren’t pancaked by massive bombs, however focused by Israel Air Pressure strikes, artillery fireplace and small arms. The constructing that housed the Israeli commandos was additionally was pocked by bullet holes and shattered glass.
What the Israeli army described on the outset as a “exact operation” seemed extra like all-out city warfare.
We weren’t given entry to the final 140 Palestinians — workers and sufferers — that the IDF mentioned have been sheltering in a close-by constructing, ready to be evacuated. The remainder of the civilians had already been despatched to different medical amenities, the army mentioned, or have been informed to move south.
“There was no medical care or consuming water or meals” for the primary three days of the raid, in accordance with Mohamed al-Sikafi, 18, who texted with The Put up final Tuesday after making it out of al-Shifa to a close-by hospital, one of many few nonetheless functioning within the north. “There are a lot of sufferers whose well being circumstances declined.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director normal of the World Well being Group, wrote on X late Sunday that 21 sufferers had died at al-Shifa “for the reason that hospital got here below siege.” The IDF mentioned no medical workers or sufferers died as a “direct outcome” of the Israeli raid, including that some could have died of “pure causes.”
Reporters have been led to an unlit room for a briefing by a prime officer within the Navy particular operations unit referred to as Flotilla 13, one essentially the most secretive within the Israeli forces, well-known for the reason that founding of the Jewish state.
Colonel “E” — we weren’t allowed to call him or {photograph} his face — described his mission: to kill or seize Hamas fighters and spare the innocents.
The colonel mentioned that after the Israeli forces left the hospital after the primary raid in November Hamas fighters streamed again into the complicated to take up arms, search shelter and blend with civilians.
“They go the place they know,” the colonel mentioned, suggesting that in bombed-out Gaza Metropolis, the al-Shifa complicated supplied shelter, meals, water, electrical energy and web service.
Earlier within the battle, the IDF made a lot of the tunnels they discovered on the hospital grounds. They described an enormous underground command and management heart, a digital metropolis. However definitive proof was missing. There have been clearly tunnels. However the place was Hamas?
Because it seems, the Israeli commando colonel careworn that the tunnel system could not have been as vital as they as soon as thought. As a substitute, the colonel mentioned, the Hamas operatives in latest months have been working above floor, inside places of work and wards. The IDF confirmed footage of what they mentioned have been money, rifles, RPGs, grenades, mortars and a few Hamas paperwork discovered on-site.
Basem Naim, a Hamas official, denied on Sunday that militants have been utilizing the hospital as a staging floor, telling The Put up it was “propaganda to justify the assault on our folks.”
“Even when some Hamas members have been current within the hospital as refugees,” he continued, “does this justify destroying hospitals?”
Medical workers acknowledged repeatedly that the complicated was not used for army functions. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a British Palestinian physician who spent a number of weeks tending to the wounded at al-Shifa final yr, mentioned Monday that his buddy and colleague Ahmad Maqadmeh, “an attractive soul and an excellent surgeon,” was among the many useless.
“He refused to depart the north and stored sending me photographs of his surgical procedures,” Abu Sitta wrote on Instagram. “He leaves behind a spouse and child.”
The Israeli colonel — and the IDF spokesman — each repeated that the Shifa offensive represented “successful and a tragedy.”
“It’s a success that we struck Hamas so arduous, that this was a brutal hit towards them, that Hamas now inform us that they’re ‘out of enterprise’ within the north,” Hagari mentioned. However he mentioned it was a tragedy that Israeli troopers have been “compelled” to destroy the hospital buildings.
“We had no selection however to combat again,” mentioned the Navy particular forces commander.
Because the journalists seemed out on the destruction, one among Hagari’s officers mentioned, “That is what they made us do.”
For the reason that starting of the raid, the IDF mentioned it has detained 900 suspected Hamas fighters and that 540 have been despatched to Israel.
What number of Palestinians fighters have been killed over two weeks of combating? The IDF didn’t present an actual determine. Hagari mentioned 40 have been killed. The commando chief mentioned “a number of dozens.”
No dying toll has been supplied but by Palestinian authorities, who gained entry to the positioning once more on Monday because the Israelis withdrew. Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Protection, mentioned emergency employees entered the compound at daybreak.
“The scene right here is likely one of the ugliest now we have seen since October 7,” he mentioned. “The hospital has turn into utterly unfit to be a medical heart. The scenario is tragic in each sense of the phrase.”
In the course of the offensive, the IDF mentioned it killed Faiq al-Mabhouh, whom Israel referred to as a commander within the Hamas inner safety forces. Hamas mentioned he was a police commander charged with coordinating and defending help deliveries.
“They take into account that everybody who works with the federal government in Gaza is a Hamas activist and may be killed or arrested, even medical doctors, nurses, journalists and civilian police,” mentioned Naim, the Hamas official.
The IDF mentioned it additionally “eradicated” a senior Hamas official named Ra’advert Tabath, whom they described as a frontrunner of the group’s provide strains.
IDF officers have described the raid at al-Shifa as a mannequin for future motion in Gaza: intense however targeted strikes by commandos. One query, although, is why such a big and damaging operation was required.
The army claimed in late December it was near establishing “full operational management” of northern Gaza. Extra not too long ago, it mentioned it had “dismantled” Hamas’s battalions within the north. It was solely pure, the particular forces commander mentioned, that Hamas fighters would regroup round al-Shifa.
Now, he mentioned, there was no hospital left for them to return to.
The journalists piled again in armored personnel carriers for the journey again to Israel. We stopped, with out warning, alongside the best way. The troopers informed us that they had come throughout a household of 4 Palestinians, a mom and father and two youngsters. We couldn’t see them.
The troopers mentioned the household have been in an space the place they weren’t allowed to be. They have been supplied water and a chocolate bar after which detained, we have been informed; the daddy could be carefully questioned. Hagari, the army spokesman, informed us it was the very best plan of action.
Had the household proceeded in a no-go zone, he mentioned, the IDF troopers “may have shot them.”
Miriam Berger in Jerusalem, Hajar Harb in London and Hazem Balousha in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.
