{"id":15857,"date":"2024-04-02T06:19:59","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T06:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/02\/israeli-army-withdraws-from-major-gaza-hospital-leaving-behind-a-wasteland\/"},"modified":"2024-04-02T06:19:59","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T06:19:59","slug":"israeli-army-withdraws-from-major-gaza-hospital-leaving-behind-a-wasteland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/02\/israeli-army-withdraws-from-major-gaza-hospital-leaving-behind-a-wasteland\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli Army Withdraws From Major Gaza Hospital, Leaving Behind a Wasteland"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/01\/multimedia\/01shifa-scene-zvmb-promo\/01shifa-scene-zvmb-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Israeli Army Withdraws From Major Gaza Hospital, Leaving Behind a Wasteland\" title=\"Israeli Army Withdraws From Major Gaza Hospital, Leaving Behind a Wasteland\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, once the fulcrum of Gaza\u2019s health system and now an emblem of its destruction, stood in ruins on Sunday, as if a tsunami had surged through it followed by a tornado.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The emergency department was a tidy, off-white building until Israeli troops returned there in March. Two weeks later, it was missing most of its facade, scorched with soot, and punctured with hundreds of bullets and shells.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The eastern floors of the surgery department were left open to the breeze, the walls blown off and the equipment buried under mounds of debris. The bridge connecting the two buildings was no longer there, and the plaza between them \u2014 formerly a circular driveway wrapping around a<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>gazebo \u2014 had been churned by Israeli armored vehicles into a wasteland of uprooted trees, upturned cars and a half-crushed ambulance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The hospital was the largest in Gaza, one of its biggest employers and a shelter for thousands of Gazans during war. I had visited its wards in calmer times, meeting Palestinians wounded in a previous conflict and doctors battling Covid-19. When I returned this week, the place was disfigured almost beyond recognition after a 12-day battle between Israeli soldiers and Gazan gunmen and an earlier raid by the Israeli military.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During a two-hour visit, I saw no Palestinians, but the Israeli soldiers who brought me there said there were still gunmen inside one building and a group of patients and doctors in another. Occasionally, we heard short bursts of gunfire. When the soldiers brought us to a vantage point overlooking the hospital, they told us not to linger long in the window in case a sniper saw us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The symbolism of this hellscape differs according to the beholder, amid a deep divergence about how the conflict should be reported and explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To the Israelis who brought me to Al-Shifa on Sunday, the carnage is the result of Hamas\u2019s decision to turn a civilian institution into a military stronghold, leaving Israel with no option but to enter it by force: Exhibit A in what they see as a war of necessity that they did not start.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe had no alternative,\u201d said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Israel\u2019s chief military spokesman, who led the visit. \u201cWe wanted to leave those places functional, but what happened was Hamas and Islamic Jihad were barricading and firing at our forces from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To the Palestinians who returned to Al-Shifa on Monday, searching for dead bodies after the Israelis withdrew, it was the embodiment of Israel\u2019s perceived disregard for civilian life and infrastructure in its pursuit of Hamas: Exhibit A in what they see as a genocide of Gazans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAs you see, this is Al-Shifa hospital after it was invaded and destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces,\u201d said Motasem Dalloul, a Palestinian journalist, in a self-filmed video he sent from the wreckage on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOr what was once Al-Shifa Hospital,\u201d added Mr. Dalloul.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When we met before the war, Mr. Dalloul said that he is not a Hamas member but speaks regularly to its leaders and cadres; he has also acted as an interpreter for its officials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Walking further through the compound, Mr. Dalloul encountered another man who blamed Israel for the destruction. \u201cThis occupation will die, Netanyahu will die, America will die \u2014 no matter how much they bomb us,\u201d the unnamed man shouted. \u201cNo matter how much they bomb us and destroy Al-Shifa, the occupation will die,\u201d he repeated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Analysts have said that Israel\u2019s return to Al-Shifa, more than four months after it was first captured, represents a strategic failure: It is the result of Israel\u2019s unwillingness to set in motion any transition of power to forces independent of Hamas, creating a vacuum that has allowed Hamas to regroup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli soldiers at Al-Shifa on Sunday portrayed the raid as a success. In one swoop, they said, they had killed about 200 fighters and captured 500 more \u2014 the majority, they said, of the remaining militants in northern Gaza. Gazan officials said hundreds of civilians were killed, a charge denied by Israel, and The New York Times could not independently verify either account.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In any case, the soldiers\u2019 departure, hours later, means it will be possible for Hamas to return once again, unimpeded, raising the chances that Israel could return for a third raid in the future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli military first captured the hospital site during a raid in November, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/11\/17\/world\/middleeast\/israel-gaza-tunnel-hamas.html\" title=\"\">exposing and destroying a subterranean tunnel network<\/a> that Israel said was a Hamas command center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After withdrawing from most of the city in January, the military returned to the hospital in March because it said remnants of Hamas\u2019s military wing had regrouped in Israel\u2019s absence, according to the officers who were escorting the international journalists, including two from The New York Times, to the site on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To join the tour, we agreed not to photograph the faces of certain commandos and to stay with the Israeli forces at all times, but otherwise agreed to no other restrictions.`<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israel\u2019s naval commando unit, Shayetet 13, swept into the hospital compound early on March 18. By Israel\u2019s account, the destruction began after Hamas gunmen refused to surrender and started shooting at the Israeli forces, prompting them to return fire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A spokesman for Hamas, Basem Naim, declined to comment on the claim that Hamas was operating inside the hospital but denied that its fighters were there; Hamas\u2019s armed wing has said that it fired on Israeli forces in the vicinity of Al-Shifa, but stopped short of saying that it fought inside the compound.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli military said that one of the first men killed on March 18 was a security chief, Faiq Mabhouh, whose death was later mourned in a statement from Hamas. A map supplied by the Israeli military said there were at least 13 gunfights that broke out across different parts of the campus over the following two weeks, as the soldiers searched for holdouts hiding throughout the site. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The military said the damage to the emergency and surgery departments was so great because the gunmen had entrenched themselves inside those buildings, one of them inside an elevator shaft, forcing the Israeli commandos to fire repeatedly at their positions. The military said that it found several weapons caches hidden inside the hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The military said the fighting was compounded by Gazan armed groups located outside the compound who also fired at Israeli soldiers, leading to gun battles around its perimeter and the killing of two Israeli soldiers outside the hospital. Hamas said on its social media platforms that its snipers and mortar teams had fired at Israeli forces in the vicinity of the hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To support its claim of Hamas\u2019s presence at the hospital, the Israeli military displayed digital copies of documents, branded with the logo of Hamas\u2019s military wing, that it said were found at the site and which purported to document a meeting of the group\u2019s militants inside the hospital. The Times could not verify the authenticity of the documents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Hamas-run authorities in Gaza have accused Israel of killing patients and displaced people sheltering at the hospital, as well detaining innocent people. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yahia Al-Kayyali, a 58-year-old doctor, said he was detained by the Israeli Army during the raid while sheltering with his family at a building close to the hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a phone interview, Dr. Al-Kayyali said the soldiers forced him to strip, a common practice that Israel says is meant to ensure detainees do not conceal weapons, before beating him and his son, interrogating and blindfolding them, taking them to the roof and forcing them to sit on shattered glass for several hours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They were later released after being made to walk south, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe soldiers treated us like animals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli soldiers who escorted us on Sunday strongly denied any accusation of wrongdoing. They said they had evacuated more than half of the medics and patients to other health facilities, as well as allowing the vast majority of the 6,000 civilians who had sheltered at the hospital to move south. They said they had detained 900 people, 500 of whom they said were militants and about 400 others who were still being investigated. The numbers could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019ve been here for 14 days,\u201d said the Shayetet 13 commander, who asked to remain anonymous in line with military protocol. \u201cIt\u2019s my soldiers. As far as I know, these accusations are a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">According to both Israeli and Palestinian officials, more than 100 patients and medics were moved to a building on the western side of the compound, away from the worst of the fighting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But there the narratives diverge. The Israeli military says that it did its best to provide food, water and medical care. The Gazan health ministry said in a statement that the remaining patients were left without enough medicine, clean water, food or sanitation, leaving some with septic wounds containing maggots.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe situation as reported by many of the staff is horrific and inhumane,\u201d the health ministry\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Citing Palestinian medics, the World Health Organization said in a statement on Sunday that 21 patients had died since the raid began, and those remaining lacked diapers and bags for urine. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To Taysir al-Tanna, a surgeon who said he had worked for 25 years at Al-Shifa, the destruction of his hospital felt like a national tragedy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He recounted by phone how the hospital \u2014 one of largest employers in both Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank \u2014 had formed \u201ca central place in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cNow, it\u2019s become a wasteland,\u201d Dr. al-Tanna said. \u201cTry to imagine what that feels like.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting from Jerusalem and Iyad Abuhweila from Istanbul.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, once the fulcrum of Gaza\u2019s health system and now an emblem of its destruction, stood in ruins on Sunday, as if a tsunami had surged through it followed by a tornado. The emergency department was a tidy, off-white building until Israeli troops returned there in March. Two weeks later, it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/01\/multimedia\/01shifa-scene-zvmb-promo\/01shifa-scene-zvmb-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5779,43,180,1178,10820,846,21567,6876],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15859,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15857\/revisions\/15859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}