Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday that Israeli forces had withdrawn tanks and vehicles from the complex housing the besieged area's main hospital, al-Shifa, days after launching a major operation in the area. .
The ministry said dozens of bodies were found inside the compound, and AFP reporters and witnesses saw tanks and vehicles withdrawing.
The Israeli military did not immediately allow the withdrawal.
Witnesses said dozens of airstrikes and artillery shells hit the area around the facility.
Hamas's government media office said Israeli airstrikes covered the retreating vehicles.
The military launched the operation on March 18 and described it as “precisely” targeting Hamas militants, which it accused of operating from the complex.
The government previously said 200 militants were killed in fighting in and around al-Shifa.
The military also released footage showing weapons and cash seized from a hospital used by Hamas and another militant group, Islamic Jihad.
Hamas denies any activity from al-Shifa or other medical facilities.
“Dozens of bodies were found in and around Al Shifa Medical Complex, some of them decomposed,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.
“The Israeli military evacuated the medical complex after burning down the complex's buildings and rendering them completely unusable,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
“The scale of destruction of the buildings in and around the housing complex is extremely large.''
An AFP reporter at the scene said several buildings in the complex were damaged and some areas showed signs of fire damage.
Doctors told AFP that more than 20 bodies had been recovered, some crushed by retreating vehicles.
Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have been displaced by the war, and hundreds had taken refuge in the al-Shifa complex before the operation began.
Israeli forces first stormed al-Shifa in November, but said the militants had since returned.
Rapidly increasing death toll
Early Monday morning, other parts of the Gaza Strip were hit by deadly airstrikes, and fighting intensified at multiple flashpoints across the Strip.
The Health Ministry announced Monday that at least 60 people died in the Gaza Strip overnight.
The war broke out when Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel, which resulted in around 1,160 deaths in Israel, most of them civilians, according to official Israeli statistics from AFP.
At least 32,782 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli retaliatory operations, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The Israeli military announced on Monday that 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the start of the war.
During the October 7 attack, Palestinian militants also took approximately 250 Israeli and foreign hostages.
Israel believes about 130 hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, 34 of whom are presumed dead.
The war between Israel and Hamas has destroyed large parts of Gaza, including some medical facilities, and sparked warnings of famine among civilians.
A United Nations Security Council resolution on March 25 called for an “immediate ceasefire” and the release of all hostages held by armed groups, but the binding resolution also called for curbing fighting, including in and around hospitals. I haven't been able to do that.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on social media platform He said he did.
The Israeli military denied that the hospital had been damaged, saying on the I did,” he said.
Tensions have risen between Israel and its main backer, the United States, over the soaring civilian death toll, particularly over Israel's threat to send ground forces to Rafah, a city in the crowded far south of Gaza. ing.
Protest against hostages
Some 1.4 million people evacuated from elsewhere in the Gaza Strip have taken refuge in Rafah, the only part of the region not yet occupied by Israeli forces.
Nevertheless, Washington has approved billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets for Israel in recent days, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has undergone “successful” hernia surgery, the prime minister's office announced on Monday.
Doctors discovered the hernia during a routine checkup on Saturday, and Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Yariv Levin performed the surgery on Netanyahu's behalf.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly vowed to crush Hamas and bring all hostages home, is facing increasing pressure from Israel to release hostages captured by the militants on October 7.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Jerusalem for the second night in a row on Sunday, demanding the release of hostages held in Gaza and further efforts to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Demonstrators earlier gathered in front of Israel's parliament, lighting fires and waving Israeli flags, before blocking major roads in the city.
Meanwhile, aid vessels were setting sail from the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus as part of a small convoy carrying 400 tonnes of food to alleviate the suffering of Gaza's 2.4 million people.
Foreign powers have stepped up airdrops of aid, but United Nations agencies and charities have warned this falls far short of urgent needs, saying trucks are the most efficient means of delivering aid. It is claimed that.
© 2024 AFP
