Israeli forces have withdrawn from Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital complex, leaving behind a scene of devastation and death. Palestinians who have examined the burnt-out ruins describe a strong smell of death. The hospital has been targeted multiple times during the eight-month-long conflict, with Israel claiming that Hamas uses hospitals as bases, a claim that Hamas denies. Palestinian search teams have discovered four mass graves at the hospital site, uncovering several hundred bodies. The UN Security Council has called for an independent investigation into possible war crimes. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) state that during their raids on Gaza hospitals, they exhumed bodies that Palestinians had previously buried while searching for the remains of hostages captured during Hamas attacks in October. The IDF claims that no staff or patients died as a direct result of their actions, but acknowledges that some may have died of natural causes. The IDF alleges that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad had taken over parts of the hospital, using it to access supplies, power, and the internet. However, there is strong testimony that Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli bombardment and shooting in the surrounding neighborhood. The controversy surrounding al-Shifa hospital centers on the accusation that Hamas uses medical sites as cover, while Israel claims that hospitals have become legitimate military targets due to the group's alleged use of them for hiding fighters and infrastructure. Hamas denies these allegations and accuses Israel of violating international humanitarian law by targeting hospitals. International forensic specialists have been unable to investigate the situation at al-Shifa due to restricted access to Gaza. Despite the destruction of al-Shifa hospital, there have been recent efforts to restart limited medical services on-site. In spite of the continuous Israeli onslaught, the young of Gaza have started to restore Al-Shifa Hospital, the biggest medical facility in the Gaza Strip. Following the hospital's 14-day siege by the Israeli occupation force in April of last year, during which many atrocities were carried out, rehabilitation work is already underway. On April 1, the Israeli occupation force left Al-Shifa Medical Complex, exposing the horrifying results of two weeks of vicious attacks on patients, their families, and medical personnel. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor initially estimated that over 1,500 people had died, been injured, or gone missing, with women and children making up half of the victims. The reopening of Al-Shifa Hospital in the face of such extreme hardship is evidence of the Gazan people's tenacity and will.
Medical groups are challenging Israel's ban on evacuations from Gaza. Israel has imposed new restrictions on medical volunteer missions it allows into Gaza while banning most critically ill and severely wounded patients from being evacuated for medical treatment. Aid officials said that, for the first time in almost two months, the Israeli government is allowing a group of child patients and their guardians to leave Gaza for medical treatment. The Israeli branch of the rights group Physicians for Human Rights-Israel has petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of about 40 patients, most of them women and children. Israel’s Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case next week. Lobbying Congress to pressure Israel, Rebuilding Alliance, a California-based aid group, has been lobbying members of Congress to pressure Israel to create a steady pipeline of medical evacuations and to lift restrictions on medical aid missions. Israel stopped allowing medical missions in or out when its forces moved into Rafah and took over the border crossing with Egypt. The missions recently started up again with Israel allowing much smaller teams to move through its Kerem Shalom crossing with southern Gaza. But there were significant restrictions — including banning any medical aid workers of Palestinian origin. When Israel resumed the medical missions in June, it also banned medical missions from bringing in any medical supplies or equipment apart from personal medications being carried in. The new Israeli rules require medical volunteers to spend a month in Gaza rather than the previous two weeks, making it much more difficult for medical specialists to participate. The numbers of doctors and nurses going in have dropped dramatically. It has made treating patients even more difficult at the European hospital in Rafah, said Dr. Alaa Al-Masri, a Gaza physician who said he had learned how to diagnose Parkinson’s and other diseases from Al-Hinti while she was there. [b5319ee7]