By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

The Israeli army said on Monday that it had arrested 500 Palestinians in and around the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City in the past week.

Despite claims by the Israeli military that they detained Palestinians based on their links to Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Palestinian reporters and medical staff described horrific scenes of humiliating interrogations and arrests of civilians.

“Israeli forces detained Palestinian journalists and health workers, blindfolded them and stripped them down to their underwear in Al-Shifa Hospital, in northern Gaza,” CNN reported on Thursday, citing eyewitnesses.

My Father’s Last Words

The human rights group Euro-Monitor said on Wednesday that many Palestinians “were victims of extrajudicial executions after their arrest”.

In a video interview, which was published in Al-Jazeera and other news outlets, a Palestinian boy described what happened to him and eight others, including his father and his brother, when they were captured by Israeli forces in the vicinity of the hospital. 

‘My Father’s Last Words’ – A Gaza Boy Describes Mass Executions at Shifa Hospital

“They stripped us from our clothes. They left us standing in the building for two hours. Then, they took us to the Al-Shifa (Hospital),” Farouk Mohammed Ahmed said.

According to Ahmed’s account, after telling the Palestinian detainees that they were safe, Israeli snipers opened fire at them. 

Ahmed is reportedly the only survivor of one of many mass executions carried out by the Israeli army in the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City. 

False Photos

The Israeli army announced on Thursday that it had arrested top Hamas officials during its raid on Al-Shifa Hospital.

A photo collage released by the army showed that Al-Qassam Brigades leader Raed Saad was among the detainees.

In a press conference, the Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari boasted of detaining “very significant” senior Hamas commanders, according to The Times of Israel.

‘By Mistake’ – Israel Admits to Publishing False Photos of Hamas Leaders Arrested in Al-Shifa

A security official in the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas, however, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera on Thursday that “the list of detainees’ photos at Al-Shifa Hospital released by the spokesperson of the occupation army is inaccurate.”

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Friday that the Israeli army’s announcement that Saad was arrested in the Al-Shifa Medical Hospital turned out to be false.

In a joint statement, the Israeli army and the Shin Bet admitted that “due to human error, there are several photos in the graphic of terrorists who have not yet been caught.”

Al-Shifa Storming

According to Gaza’s government media office, more than 250 Palestinians have been killed and injured in the Israeli raid on the facility, which started on March 18.

This is the second time that Israeli forces have stormed the Al-Shifa Medical Complex since the beginning of the war on October 7.

‘No Words Can Describe the Suffering’ – Horrific Testimonies from Al-Shifa

They stormed it for the first time on November 16, after besieging it for at least a week.

Israeli forces subsequently withdrew from the hospital, after destroying its courtyards, parts of its buildings, medical equipment and equipment, in addition to the hospital’s electricity generator.

Genocide Continues

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7. 

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 32,333 Palestinians have been killed, and 74,694 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. 

Israeli Attacks on Gaza – Targeting Hospitals, Rising Death Toll

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

 Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire.’ 

(The Palestine Chronicle)