Key Points
- Israel's military says it has now withdrawn from Gaza's largest hospital after a two-week raid.
- Palestinians who returned to al-Shifa Hospital have described a scene of "total destruction".
- Israel says it launched the raid because militants had regrouped there, a claim denied by Gaza health authorities.
Dead bodies with tyre marks across them have been reportedly found in the decimated remains of Gaza's largest hospital.
Al-Shifa hospital complex is unrecognisable in video footage shared on social media, showing decomposed human remains among the devastation.
"Bodies... The tanks went over them. Destruction. Children. Innocents. Unarmed civilians. They (soldiers) went over them," one witness told AFP, asking not to be named.
The Israeli military withdrew from the hospital on Monday after a two-week "precise operational activity" in which they claim to have killed at least 200 people.
The health ministry in Gaza said "the scale of the destruction inside the complex and the buildings around it is very large".
It ruled the hospital now "completely out of service".
The UN health agency said several patients died and dozens were put at risk during the raid, which brought even further destruction to a hospital that had already largely ceased to function.
The White House said it would press Israel for more information, calling the reports "deeply concerning".
'Total destruction'
Mohammed Mahdi, who was among hundreds of Palestinians who returned to the area on Monday, described a scene of "total destruction".
He said several buildings had been burned down and he had counted six bodies in the area, including two in the hospital courtyard.
Video circulating online showed heavily damaged and charred buildings, mounds of dirt that had been churned up by bulldozers and patients on stretchers in darkened corridors.
Another resident, Yahia Abu Auf, said there were still patients, medical workers and displaced people sheltering inside the medical compound after several patients had been taken to the nearby Ahli Hospital.
He said army bulldozers had ploughed over a makeshift cemetery in al-Shifa's courtyard.
"The situation is indescribable," he said. "The occupation destroyed all sense of life here."
Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes and has raided several medical facilities.
It says it launched the raid on al-Shifa after Hamas and other militants had regrouped there.
Gaza health officials deny those allegations. Critics accuse the army of recklessly endangering civilians and of decimating a health sector already overwhelmed with war-wounded.
The military had previously raided al-Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital, in November after saying Hamas maintained an elaborate command and control centre inside and beneath the compound.
Israel has bombarded Gaza since Hamas' 7 October attack in which more than 1,200 people were killed and over 200 hostages taken, according to the Israeli government. More than 32,000 people have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
The 7 October attack was a significant escalation in the long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The Israeli military says it has killed more than 13,000 Hamas fighters.
The war has displaced most of the territory's population and driven a third of its residents to the brink of famine.
Northern Gaza, where al-Shifa is located, has suffered vast destruction and has been largely isolated since October, leading to widespread hunger.
Israel said in late 2023 that it had largely dismantled Hamas in northern Gaza and withdrew thousands of troops.
But it has battled militants there on a number of occasions since then, and the two weeks of heavy fighting around al-Shifa highlighted the staying power of the armed groups.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep up the offensive until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are freed.
He says Israel will soon expand ground operations to the southern city of Rafah, where some 1.4 million people — more than half of Gaza's population — have sought refuge.
But he faces mounting pressure from Israelis who blame him for the security failures of 7 October and from some families of the hostages who blame him for the failure to reach a deal despite several weeks of talks mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
Tens of thousands of Israelis thronged central Jerusalem on Sunday in the largest anti-government protest since the country went to war in October.
