Gutted, burned, largely destroyed: the al-Shifa hospital, which was the most important in the Gaza Strip, has become one of the emblematic places of the war that broke out on October 7 between the Israeli army and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
The facility, which previously housed thousands of patients in several buildings, ceased operations for months before reopening an emergency department in September amid the ruins.
Dr. Jadallah al-Shaffey, the site manager, told AFP that he had to “pull dialysis machines out of the rubble.”
Located in Gaza City, the hospital, an institution since 1946, was largely destroyed by two Israeli military operations in the space of a few months, one last November, the other in March.
At least 2,300 people were inside on November 15, according to the UN, when the Israeli army entered in the middle of the night. Gunfire and explosions terrified patients and medical staff for days, according to an AFP correspondent on the scene at the time.
About four months later, on March 19, Israeli tanks returned to the compound, which its soldiers had combed for eleven days. After withdrawing, the army claimed to have killed more than 200 “terrorists” and found numerous weapons.
The Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip, a small Palestinian territory where Hamas seized power in 2007, said it had found at least 300 bodies.
“This is a textbook case of human rights violations,” says Palestinian-American academic Yara Asi, a specialist in public health in war zones.
“Narrative”
Since the start of the war almost a year ago, the army has consistently claimed that it targeted al-Shifa hospital because fighters from the Islamist movement and other Palestinian armed groups were using the site as command centers.
She supported her accusations by providing videos she shot showing tunnels under the hospital.
But many Palestinians in Gaza and media outlets that verify the videos have accused the military of staging the footage.
“There is so much misinformation that from the moment there is doubt, people can believe” without proof, notes Mme Asi, specifying that a biased “narrative” can exist in “a world where truth is a relative concept.”
Israeli authorities also said there may be hostages in hospitals.
During the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war, 251 people were taken hostage. Of these, 97 are still being held in Gaza, 33 of whom have been declared dead by the Israeli army.
Hostages freed during a brief truce in November described being held in hospitals or similar locations.
The Israeli army announced that the remains of at least two hostages, Noa Marciano and Yehudit Weiss, had been found in the immediate vicinity of al-Chifa.
Hamas, considered a terrorist organisation by Israel as well as by the United States and the European Union, has denied all the accusations.
“Desecrated”
“With each war, this hospital became more important,” says Ghassan Abou Sittah, referring to the four previous wars in Gaza (2008-2009, 2012, 2014 and 2021). The Palestinian-British surgeon spent the first 43 days of the current war in Gaza treating the wounded.
Al-Chifa (healing in Arabic) is one of the most famous public buildings in the Palestinian territory, and the Israeli army has, according to him, “desacralized” it.
“It started from an almost basic colonial infrastructure (al-Chifa was built in a former British barracks, editor’s note) to become the largest health center in Gaza,” analyzes Mme So.
“Like many aspects of Palestinian development, it was not just a hospital, but a manifestation of the Palestinians’ will to live on this land.”
The image of the ruins of this functional public institution, rare in the Gaza Strip, was experienced as a trauma by many Palestinians, especially Gazans.
“After the fall of al-Shifa, people said to themselves that there was nothing left in the north (of the Gaza Strip, editor’s note) that could help them,” adds Mr. Abou Sittah: “It was the nerve center of the health system, the raids broke it.”
Like these blackened, bullet-riddled walls, the rest of the Palestinian territory’s health system has collapsed in nearly a year of war.
The World Health Organization estimates that only a handful of clinics are functioning, and the wounded – dozens every day – are most often treated by the field hospitals of international organizations.
Everywhere, caregivers say they lack everything.