Hospital Attack Ends As Pressure Grows On Netanyahu

Israeli forces announced their withdrawal from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza yesterday after a two-week raid, amid claims from Hamas that the Israel Defense Forces have killed 400 people in the compound and allegations from the Palestinian Red Crescent of torture and executions.

- Lorenzo Tondo 

According to the IDF, the facility - Gaza City's main hospital before the war - was being used to harbour Hamas fighters. The army described the operation as one of the most successful of the nearly six-month conflict and cited the killing of 200 militants, including senior operatives. The claim that they were all militants could not be confirmed.

However, the UN health agency said several hospital patients had died and dozens were put at risk during the raid. Palestinians who fled the facility described days of heavy fighting, mass arrests and forced marches past dead people.

Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus yesterday, killing six people including a senior commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. In addition, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said yesterday he would shut down broadcaster AI Jazeera's offices in Israel.

According to a statement by the WHO's director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, published on X in the late hours of Sunday, at least 21 people died during the al-Shifa military operation, with more than 100 patients still in the compound, at least 28 of them in a critical condition.

"Among the patients are four children, lacking necessary means of care - no diapers, urine bags, water to clean wounds," Ghebreyesus wrote.