Survivors of the Israeli attack on al-Shifa hospital and its vicinity in Gaza City have recounted their experiences to Middle East Eye, a week after the raid.
Israeli forces have been attacking and laying siege to al-Shifa hospital since Monday 18 March. The medical complex is the largest in the Gaza Strip, with some 30,000 people seeking refuge there prior to the current raid.
The surgical building was destroyed on Thursday, and many displaced people were forced to leave the medical complex, the largest in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, civilians in the vicinity of the hospital have reported being trapped under Israeli fire for days.
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor rights group said on Saturday that it documented “a series of crimes systematically committed by Israeli forces” in the area of the hospital in Gaza City over the past week.
The abuses , according to Euro-Med, include extrajudicial executions, communication cutoffs, and intense shelling targeting homes surrounding the medical complex.
Adel AbdRabbouh, 29, was an eyewitness to the Israeli attack on the hospital last week as he arrived there to visit his cousins.
At around 11am last Monday, he watched as Israeli quadcopters, tanks, warplanes and military vehicles encircled the hospital.
He said “thousands of bullets” were fired at the hospital, which forced him to stay put as he feared being shot at if he fled the building.
“People were falling [...] like leaves from Israeli bullets; patients were left alone moaning from pain inside; women were calling their children, and children were crying out in panic. That was the scene,” he told Middle East Eye.
Then, AbdRabbouh said that approximately 500 Israeli soldiers stormed the hospital, instructing everyone not to move.
They began apprehending those who could walk and had no life-threatening wounds, he added.
“Initially assuring us no harm would come, they proceeded to kill at least 300 civilians. We were mere toys in their hands," he said.
Despite sustaining severe fractures and burns on his left leg during the attack, AbdRabbouh was among those detained in the raid.
Over 500 individuals, including women and children, were also detained, he told MEE.
“Men were stripped, beaten, blindfolded and handcuffed. We were herded into the courtyard and later subjected to interrogation,” he added.
AbdRabbouh said he underwent three rounds of questioning by Israeli soldiers, each round lasting 15 minutes.
Soldiers asked him whether he had encountered any Palestinian fighters. Following 45 minutes of interrogation per person, they were left naked outside the hospital, and received nothing for iftar except a small bottle of water.
They remained in this state until the following morning when they were instructed to march to Al-Rasheed Street, near Istanbul Cafe. On Wednesday morning, they were released and ordered to flee south.
“Despite our exhaustion, wounds, and dehydration, we had to trek for seven hours to Deir al-Balah. I arrived there on the brink of death," he recounted. (...)
