Israeli Forces Put Gaza's Largest Hospital Out of Service

In the early hours of Monday, Israeli occupation forces vacated Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, leaving it completely out of service.

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Two weeks ago, hundreds of Israeli soldiers, police dogs, tanks, drones, and helicopters participated in the assault on this hospital, which housed 5,000 patients and around 30,000 refugees, according to Al Mayadeen outlet.

On Sunday, the Gaza-based Health Ministry denounced that the Israeli occupation of Shifa Hospital destroyed over 1,000 homes in the area and left at least 400 dead.

"We appeal to the international community to first investigate what happened in the medical complex, and second, to seek alternatives to the health services it provided," said Marwan Abu Saada, the director of Shifa.

"The destruction of the complex makes it impossible to resume work, and the hospital has been completely out of service," he added.

Images released of the state of Shifa Hospital after the withdrawal of Israeli forces show extensive destruction throughout the area, with buildings destroyed and large parts of the medical complex burned by intense fire from attacks over two weeks.

At Shifa Hospital, the Gaza Civil Defense found hundreds of corpses of people who were executed and burned.

"Most of the bodies are decomposing. Inside the medical complex, we came across bodies that are burnt skeletons," said Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmud Busal, who noted that it is difficult to count the victims because Israeli troops "lifted the streets with bulldozers and buried the bodies."

"For 15 days, I have not received any treatment for my wounds or my diabetes. They took me from the reception department to the renal department and then to another department, while the sounds of explosions did not stop. I can't believe I'm still alive," said a patient.

"There were no red lines in the killings or torture. They resorted to the most heinous and humiliating forms against us. They shot over our heads just for fun," said another patient who survived the Israeli attack on the hospital.

Meanwhile, throughout the entire time of the occupation of Gaza's largest hospital, Israeli forces continued to insist that their offensive was not directed against "patients, health personnel, or medical equipment."