In the early hours of March 18, Israeli forces launched a raid on the hospital they said targeted Hamas operatives – an operation that turned into a major battle in and around the complex.
Over the course of two weeks, they said 200 fighters were killed and hundreds more detained – while the civil defence agency in Hamas-run Gaza said “300 martyrs” had been killed.
“There is no medical centre, it was completely destroyed. The mass graves that were built here were destroyed,” said Afanah.
Israeli strike on Gaza kills foreign aid workers delivering food
Israeli strike on Gaza kills foreign aid workers delivering food
Several doctors and civilians at the damaged complex said that at least 20 bodies had been found, some of which appeared to have been driven over by military vehicles.
Several were found close to the west entrance to the complex, which the Israeli army used during its departure from the hospital grounds on Monday.
“Bodies … The tanks went over them. Destruction. Children. Innocents. Unarmed civilians. They (soldiers) went over them,” one witness said, asking not to be named.
The White House said it would press Israel for more information, calling the reports “deeply concerning”.
When Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel sparked the war in Gaza, al-Shifa quickly became a place where people took refuge, but Israel said a Hamas command and control centre was concealed beneath it.
Hamas has denied Israel’s accusation and an Israeli raid on the hospital in November sparked international concern for the staff, patients and people sheltering in its grounds.
Months later, Israel came back for a longer and more intense operation that included heavy fighting, air strikes and mass arrests.
“Destruction, not even a bed left for a patient … We will be buried here and we will not leave from here,” a man at the scene said, speaking on condition he not be named.
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Premature babies evacuated from al-Shifa after Israeli troops seize Gaza’s biggest hospital
Premature babies evacuated from al-Shifa after Israeli troops seize Gaza’s biggest hospital
The bloodiest ever Gaza war erupted with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack which resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign, aimed at destroying Hamas, has killed at least 32,845 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Al-Shifa is surrounded by a Gaza City neighbourhood that was flattened in spots; one AFP image shows a tangle of steel, shattered concrete and the remains of a tree.
Yet amid the destruction, there were still people, some carrying bags or pushing bikes.
“Of course, the bombings were terrifying, they were bombing day and night. People here were making do with the food they had left,” said Palestinian Anwar el Jondi.
“People hadn’t eaten for days.”
US to press Israel on bodies found at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, White House says
US to press Israel on bodies found at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, White House says
A recent UN-backed report warned that the north of the Gaza Strip faces imminent famine unless a surge of aid arrives in the area.
But getting food to northern Gaza faces serious challenges, and several instances of deadly gunfire or stampedes have only added to the difficulty of getting food to people who need it.
“When you look at the destruction around it, it’s as if an earthquake or a nuclear bomb had hit the place,” el Jondi added.
The level of destruction at the complex, which once housed specialist surgery and maternity centres, was so massive as to raise questions about its future.
“The hospital is completely destroyed, which means that it is no longer suitable for anything, either for patients or for life, it has been almost completely destroyed. This means that the hospital needs to be demolished,” one Palestinian man said, declining to give his name.
The war in Gaza has also raised fears of a wider regional conflagration, with repeated violence linked to the conflict in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
Those fears intensified on Monday with strikes in Damascus on the consular annex of Israel’s arch-foe Iran.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in Britain, said 11 people were killed.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said seven members were killed, including two senior officers, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Brigadier General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi.
Israel did not comment, but Iran vowed a “decisive response” to the attack and called on the international community to act.
Hamas called the attack a “dangerous escalation”.
Washington told Tehran that it “had no involvement” or advanced knowledge of the Israeli strike, Axios reported on Monday citing a US official.
Zahedi – who according to Iranian state TV was part of the Revolutionary Guards’ foreign operations arm, the Quds Force – is one of a number of high-profile figures targeted by Israel during the Gaza war.