Shifa Hospital Siege

November 2023 - April 2024

Al-Shifa Hospital is the largest medical complex in Gaza. It was placed under siege by the Israeli Occupation Forces several times since the beginning of the genocide.

On November 11, the hospital was encircled by the IOF, cutting it off from the rest of Gaza City. At the time, the hospital contained 1,500 patients, 1,500 medical workers and around 15,000 displaced people who were seeking shelter in the hospital. There were over 100 dead bodies placed in the courtyard and later buried by medical staff in a mass grave due to the siege.

According to a doctor at the hospital quoted in a 15 November BBC article, six premature infants had also died, as a result of the lack lack of fuel for incubators, oxygen, and other essential medical equipment. Another doctor at the hospital, Ahmed Mokhallalati, said that 43 of the hospital's 63 intensive care patients had died because the intensive care unit ran out of oxygen.

In mid March 2024 and for two weeks, the IOF besieged the hospital compound again, where thousands of Palestinian civilians were taking shelter and receiving medical treatment. Advancing under relentless bombardment, the IOF carried out horrific acts of mass slaughter. After two weeks of carnage, Israeli military forces and tanks withdrew from the besieged hospital compound. Over 400 bodies were uncovered , half of them children and women. Hundreds lay wounded with grotesque deformities; many others remain missing.

After the raid, the hospital resembled a slaughterhouse. Hundreds of bodies lay scattered in the dirt, mutilated beyond recognition. Bodies with heads and limbs severed were discovered both inside the hospital and in the surrounding area. Surgeons had been tied up and executed. Some bodies were buried under the rubble, with body parts protruding from the ground; others had been crushed and flattened by bulldozers, their hands and legs tied behind their backs.