ON OCTOBER 27TH, in advance of its first invasion of al-Shifa—the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip—the Israeli military released a clip of a three-dimensional model of the medical facility that purported to show how Hamas was using it as its “main headquarters,” with tunnels located directly underneath the medical wards ostensibly serving as a base for the group’s military operations. Following these allegations, which were continuously reiterated by Israel’s military spokesperson and parroted by international media, Israeli forces raided al-Shifa on November 15th. At the time when the soldiers entered the hospital, at least 650 patients and 7,000 displaced Palestinians were still on the premises, but Israel claimed that these people were “human shields” for Hamas; it then proceeded to attack the facility and those within it, damaging the surgical operation room building, blowing up a warehouse storing medicine and medical equipment, blindfolding and interrogating hundreds before taking them to “unknown areas,” and shooting at anyone who tried to flee. Following the attack, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said that 179 bodies were found inside the compound. Israel used similar justifications to besiege the hospital yet again in March, and by the end of that month, it had completely destroyed al-Shifa, transforming its grounds into a mass grave. ….more
