Zoom-in 1: The Second Israeli invasion of al-Shifa hospital (18 March-1 April)1
Last updated: June 18, 2024
The second Israeli invasion of al-Shifa hospital in mid-late March stands out as a major yet distinct operation that fits into several of the sections in this document. The following section zooms into this particular event to highlight how this operation reflects the themes discussed above.
In mid-late March, the IDF conducted another military operation in the al-Shifa hospital.2 Early reports from within the Strip asserted that the IDF had killed or executed some 150 young men.3 An NGO received testimonies of systematic crimes conducted that included deliberate killings and extrajudicial executions, as well as arbitrary detentions of some 400 individuals and torturing of local residents and patients.4 After the IDF released an collage image with images of 358 allegedly detained terrorists from al-Shifa hospital, an NGO found that the number of images was smaller (248), that the collage included 52 duplicates, and identified 11 portraits in the collage by name as healthcare workers.5 Several doctors and other health practitioners have been killed or executed,6 including a pharmacist who was among those executed in front of patients.7 People who escaped provide similar testimonies,8 such as a young man who recounts IDF soldiers shooting at detainees around him, as well as killing several as well as his father and brother.9 Footage of released detainees shows them in their underwear.10 Some of the released detainees were in wheelchairs.10 An adjacent hospital to al-Shifa (al-Helu) was bombed in the operation, hitting patient rooms as well.11 An eyewitness claimed to see about four times groups of three to ten detainees brought to hospital buildings. Gunshots were then heard, and the soldiers then left to bring another group of detainees; other eyewitnesses recounted similar events and execution-style killings.12 People who did not evacuate when ordered were regarded as suspects and killed.13 Other eyewitnesses stated that they were not able to move and get food and water for days.14 An NGO’s initial research found evidence for the execution of 13 children,15 as well as that over 25,000 civilians were forced to evacuate their homes in the vicinity of al-Shifa, and estimated that the IDF demolished and torched over 1,200 housing units in the area.16 Several consistent testimonies also reveal that the IDF used civilians as human shields.17
Israeli footage from al-Shifa revealed that the IDF has made the hospital into a makeshift center of operations, with widespread destruction and tied and blindfolded detained Palestinians placed along its corridors.18 Civilians living in the vicinity of al-Shifa hospital were left without food and water for days. According to one eyewitness, she was among 65 families that the IDF forced out of their building. The IDF then burned their clothes as well as the building in which they lived; other buildings and civilians were allegedly burned as well.19 The IDF’s actions trapped over 240 sick and injured patients in the hospital without access to food, medication or treatment for about a week.20 Doctors who were in al-Shifa during the siege reported on their extreme experiences.21 At least 22 patients died due to lack of oxygen, food and water.22
After the IDF finally left al-Shifa, hundreds of corpses were found amidst widespread destruction of and in the hospital.23 Dozens or even hundreds of corpses were found decomposing in the ground in makeshift and mass graves, some of them handcuffed in what suggests execution.24 An independent research agency based in academia found evidence that the bodies of those killed during this invasion were bulldozed.25
An NGO claimed that based on preliminary reports, over 1,500 Palestinians were killed, injured, or are reported missing. Women and children made up half of the casualties. Hundreds of corpses were found, including some burned and others with heads and limbs severed.26 The directors and doctors of the hospital declared that the destruction put the hospital out of service while also naming many of their colleagues who were killed, detained and displaced.27 Despite the large amount of contrary evidence, the IDF Chief of the General Staff claimed that not a single medical personnel or local patients were harmed.28 Israel’s former Prime Minister also claimed that not a single civilian was killed, “unprecedented in urban warfare”.29
An IDF’s spokesperson claimed on the IDF’s official Twitter account that “200 terrorists [were] eliminated” and that more than 500 Palestinians were detained.30 Yet when the IDF brought international journalists to see the hospital just before it left, the local IDF spokesperson estimated the number of Palestinian fighters killed over two weeks of fighting at 40, while a commando leader said that the number was “a few dozens”.31 A investigative report found that most of the people who were killed and arrested were workers in the government’s civil branch – people working in Civil Defense, the police, the interior ministry and so on, who all came to al-Shifa to collect their salaries.13