Israeli military forces have pulled out from Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, after a 14-day siege that witnesses and Gazan authorities say left the medical facility severely damaged.
"The situation is very dire," stated Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for Gaza's Civil Defense, on Monday.
He described Al-Shifa as "completely destroyed and burned down. Many of its buildings are totally destroyed or charred."
He also mentioned, "Injured and dead bodies fill the hospital grounds.
There are bodies buried in the hospital yards."
Visuals from the area displayed extensive destruction, with buildings inside the complex showing signs of charring and pockmarks.
According to Bassal, more than 30 wounded individuals were transferred from Al-Shifa to the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital east of Gaza City.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed their withdrawal in a statement on Monday, stating they had completed "precise operational activity" in the area.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that around 3,000 people were inside Al-Shifa when the IDF began its raid on March 18, and those attempting to leave were targeted by snipers and fire from helicopters.
Hamas had previously accused Israel of striking targets "without regard" to the patients or medical staff inside – a claim supported by individuals at the complex.
"Military vehicles are firing at the hospital buildings' windows, and at anyone who is caught moving between the hallways," said Hamada Abdelhadi, a displaced Palestinian seeking shelter at Al-Shifa, to CNN in March.
While international law prohibits the targeting of hospitals in wartime, those standards change if enemy combatants are using the facility to attack an enemy.
The IDF stated that during the raid, its troops "killed terrorists in close-quarters encounters, located numerous weapons and intelligence documents throughout the hospital, while preventing harm to civilians, patients, and medical teams."
The IDF also claimed that civilians, patients, and medical teams were evacuated during the operation, although Palestinians inside and around Al-Shifa reported civilian casualties and arrests.
Eyewitnesses mentioned that medical personnel and other civilians were detained by Israeli troops.
Khader Al Za'anoun, a journalist with CNN, described the scene at Al-Shifa on Monday following the IDF's withdrawal as "like a horror movie."
"Bulldozers crushed bodies of people everywhere around and in the yard of the hospital," he said.
After the withdrawal, people began arriving at the destroyed complex to search for missing family members. Al Za'anoun added, "We found entire families dead and their bodies decomposed in houses around the hospital.
Those still alive in the complex are malnourished, with some survivors saying they had to share one bottle of water among six people each day."
Residents near Al-Shifa reported heavy firing in the vicinity, with one family stating that their home was shelled, burying children – some still alive – under the rubble.
This raid was the second of its kind at the hospital, with the IDF first raiding Al-Shifa in November. By January, the IDF stated it had completed dismantling Hamas' command structure in northern Gaza.
The United States, Israel's closest ally, has consistently supported Israeli assessments that Hamas and other Gaza militants used Al-Shifa's medical complex as a command hub, and to hold hostages and store weapons.
Regarding the attack on Al-Shifa, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stated on March 18 that "Hamas came back into Shifa" after Israel had cleared the hospital of the militant group.
The siege has been condemned by international organizations, with World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stating in March, "Hospitals should never be battlegrounds."
WHO and other humanitarian groups had warned of an impending famine in northern Gaza. By late March, 70% of the population was suffering from catastrophic levels of hunger, according to a UN-backed report.
All 2.2 million people in Gaza do not have enough food to eat, with half of the population on the brink of starvation. Famine is projected to arrive in the north "anytime between mid-March and May 2024," according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).