Al-Shifa Hospital witnesses reveal bloodshed of Israeli raids

Witnesses of Israel's brutal siege of Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital have revealed the devastating impact of the raids, which saw hundreds of staff, refugees, and patients killed or detained.

According to testimonies collected by Mondoweiss, civilians working for the Gaza government had been at the hospital collecting salaries at the time of the Israeli assault.

This included civil defence crews, police officers, internal security services, interior ministry employees and those who work for other branches of government.

Israel claimed without providing any evidence that hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) militants were organising on the hospital grounds when it launched its devastating assault on Al-Shifa, resulting in as many as 1,500 casualties or people disappeared, including medics and patients.

Witnesses said the Israeli army separated people into two groups: those with yellow bracelets for hospital staff and civilians, and those with red bracelets for those unable to move, such as patients.

The army also rounded up suspected Hamas or PIJ members into a separate building. A third group, consisting of thousands of displaced people, was ordered to leave the hospital.

Israeli soldiers executed staff members and doctors who refused to leave the hospital grounds due to the need to care for patients, Mondoweiss reported.

The Israeli army also executed a large number of suspected Hamas and PIJ members on the hospital grounds, whose bodies were then buried by bulldozers.

A small number of police officers who offered minor resistance to the Israeli soldiers storming the building were also killed.

The New Arab is not able to verify claims made by Mondoweiss, although a spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence previously confirmed that 300 bodies were recovered following the operation.

According to the Israeli army, some 900 people were arrested on the grounds of Al-Shifa Hospital during the siege, which lasted from 18 March to 1 April. This includes 500 alleged "terror operatives" from Hamas and PIJ.

The Israeli army alleged that 200 gunmen had also been killed during the operation, which it described as one of the most successful operations of the war, although there have been huge doubts cast about this figure.

According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, over 1,500 Palestinians were either killed, wounded, or are missing because of the operation, including 22 patients who were killed in their hospital beds.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed 33,634 Palestinians, mostly women and children, with a further 76,214 injured.