The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas rules, announced today that the Israeli army withdrew tanks etcand the other vehicles that were deployed inside at Sifa Hospital, pre-war the enclave’s largest health structure, where it had been conducting an operation for the past two weeks, adding that “dozens of bodies” were later found.

The Israeli army itself has not confirmed that it has withdrawn its forces from the hospital at this stage.

An AFP journalist and eyewitnesses reported seeing tanks and other armored vehicles leaving the compound under cover fire from artillery and air force.

“Dozens of bodies of martyrs, some in a state of decomposition, were found in and around Shifa Hospital,” the Hamas Health Ministry said in a statement, adding that the material damage is “extremely large” in all the buildings of the facility, as the retreating forces “set fire to the compound’s buildings and put it completely out of order.”

A doctor told AFP that more than 20 bodies were counted. According to him, some were crushed by Israeli military vehicles as they were leaving.

Israel’s military, which accuses Hamas militants of hiding inside hospitals, launched what it described as a “precision operation” on March 18 in Shifa, in the northern Palestinian territory of Gaza City.

In the process, he assured that he “eliminated about 200 terrorists” in the sector. The operation took place while hundreds of evacuees had taken refuge in the health structure.

Yesterday Sunday, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, emphasized through X that 21 patients died at Shifa Hospital after the Israeli operation began.

According to him, 107 patients remain in the hospital, among them 4 children and 28 people in critical condition. “Many have infected wounds and are dehydrated” and as of yesterday Saturday “only one bottle of water is left for every 15 people”.

The Israeli military had already carried out a similar operation in Shifa in November, accusing Hamas, which it denies, of using the hospital as a command center.

New bombings

Almost half a year after the outbreak of war, triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas’s military arm on southern sectors of Israeli territory on October 7, Israeli military retaliatory operations continue breathlessly in the near-total siege of the Gaza Strip, where the tally it does not stop getting heavier and heavier, it has reached at least 32,782 dead, the majority of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Islamic Movement. Not counting the leveling of much of the enclave and the humanitarian devastation.

More than 1,160 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the attack by Hamas’ military wing on Israeli territory, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.

According to Israeli sources, another 250-plus people were abducted and taken to the Gaza Strip, of whom more than 130 are believed to be still being held in the enclave — but 34 of them are believed to be dead.

In retaliation, Israel’s civil-military leadership has vowed to wipe out Hamas, a movement it labels, like the US and the EU, a “terrorist” organization and launched an initial campaign of intensive air, land and sea bombing and, since late October, ground operations, which have now reached the south, very close to Rafa.

The Israeli army today gave the latest official tally, announcing that 600 of its members have lost their lives since October 7, 2023, 256 in the Gaza Strip.

Yesterday the enclave was hit by a series of new Israeli airstrikes, one of which targeted a hospital, according to the UN.

The director-general of the WHO, which is part of the UN, said that “a tent in the courtyard of the hospital was hit in an Israeli bombardment. Four people were killed and (another) 17 were injured.”

A team from the agency was on a mission at the hospital in Deir al-Bala at the time of the bombing, according to Dr. Tedros.

The Israeli military said via X that its aircraft carried out a “precision” strike targeting “a Palestinian Islamic Jihad command center and terrorists (…) in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Deir al-Bala area.”

“Netanyahu must go”

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who yesterday underwent “successful” surgery to treat a hernia — has once again become the object of the ire of tens of thousands of protesters who took part in massive demonstrations over the weekend. Participants demanded his resignation and an agreement to release the hostages of Hamas’ military arm.

Police used pressurized water pumps to push back the protesters, who were chanting “elections!”, that the prime minister “must go”, demanding “bring them (the hostages) back now!” and among others gathered in front of the Knesset, in Jerusalem, where incidents broke out.

“People are angry, they are tired (…) They blame Bibi (including Mr. Netanyahu) and his government, who say they are not to blame for anything,” said Dana, 44, from Tel Aviv, who went to Jerusalem to protest.

The possibility of a deal with Hamas seems to remain remote, despite calls from international organizations, which do not cease to warn that the vast majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are at risk of starvation.

“There is no question yet of a new round of negotiations,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan said yesterday.

In recent months, indirect negotiations have been taking place, through international mediators—Qatar, Egypt, the US—either in Doha or in Cairo.

Mr. Netanyahu yesterday accused Hamas of “hardening” its position in the ceasefire negotiations, while his government, according to him, “shows flexibility.”

In the central part of the country, near Ashdod, three young men were seriously injured when they were attacked with a knife yesterday, a first aid service announced.

Police confirmed that a “terrorist”, using “two knives”, attacked and “stabbed three people” before he was “neutralized” by local police officers. He did not specify whether he was killed.

A police spokesman told AFP the suspect was “19 years old” from Dura, near Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.