Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital devastated in two-week battle

Israeli forces on Monday pulled out of Gaza's largest hospital complex after an intensive two-week military operation, leaving behind charred buildings and bodies strewn at the sprawling complex.

Israel said it had battled Hamas members hiding inside Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital, killed at least 200 enemy fighters and recovered large stockpiles of weapons, explosives and cash, reports AFP.
The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said that, after heavy Israeli air strikes and tank fire, "the scale of the destruction inside the complex and the buildings around it is very large".

"Dozens of bodies, some of them decomposed, have been recovered from in and around the Al-Shifa medical complex," the ministry said, adding that the hospital was now "completely out of service".

A doctor told AFP more than 20 bodies had been recovered, some crushed by withdrawing vehicles.

Battles have also flared around other Gaza hospitals almost six months into the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attacks which have destroyed swathes of the besieged coastal territory.

The Hamas government press office said the army had blown up more than 20 houses within 24 hours in the main southern city of Khan Yunis, where battles have raged around the Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals.

EM