The Ministry of Health of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) stated that the Israeli army withdrew from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza today, Friday, on the first day of the truce between Israel and Hamas, which controls authority in the Palestinian territories.
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When contacted by Agence France-Presse, the army did not immediately comment.
On the first day of the Israeli raids on the hospital, there were 2,300 patients, wounded, caregivers and displaced people, according to the United Nations. Christian Lindmeier, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, reported that during the evacuations, “about 100 patients and caregivers are still recovering.”
They are now in a facility “whose main generator has been destroyed, as well as many buildings, courtyards and walls,” according to Hamas Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra.
“We are working to evacuate more hospitals,” Mr. Lindmeier added, while Israeli operations in recent days have focused on another hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, the Indonesian hospital.
The World Health Organization said that the last convoy left the city of Shifa, carrying “73 people with serious illnesses, 18 patients on dialysis, 26 patients with paraplegia or paraplegia, eight patients with chronic diseases, two in urgent need of care, and 19 patients in wheelchairs.” .
On Thursday, the Israeli army, which accuses Hamas of using Gaza hospitals for military purposes – which it denies – arrested the director of the institution, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salamiya.
The Israeli army announced that it had found a tunnel “used for terrorism” under Al-Shifa. It also published video surveillance cameras proving, according to its official spokesman, that the hostages were being held there. Hamas responded that she was transferred there to receive treatment.
On Thursday evening, it was the Indonesian hospital that was “subjected to violent bombardment,” according to Ashraf Al-Qudra.
On Friday, at 7 a.m. local time (05:00 GMT), a truce that was supposed to last four days began in the Gaza Strip. Hamas and other armed groups in the Strip must release 13 women and children hostage during the day, while Israel must release three times that number of Palestinian prisoners, women and children, held in Israel.
