GAZA, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Rahaf al-Halabi, a 62-year-old Palestinian woman in Gaza, breathed a sigh of relief after the Israeli army withdrew from the Al-Shifa Hospital on Monday following a 14-day siege.
"You can smell death everywhere. The Israeli army has turned the hospital into a hell that has no feature of life," she said with teary eyes. "The army killed dozens of young people before our eyes."
"My family and I spent days of darkness and horror under the Israeli siege and attacks on the hospital. Many times, we thought that we would be killed by the Israeli army," she said.
Earlier in the day, Avichai Adraee, the spokesman of the Israeli army, said in a press statement that the army finished its military operations in Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, and killed and arrested dozens of militants and terrorists, including leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
"The army found rifles, pistols, explosive materials, and dozens of mortar shells in the maternity ward, some of which were inside beds and pillows," Adraee added.
Mahmoud Haboush has spent several hours searching through the rubble in hopes of finding the bodies of his two brothers. Until now, the 28-year-old Palestinian has been unsuccessful in locating the bodies of his brothers. He expressed profound sadness at the realization that his brothers may have already been killed by the Israeli army, and he may never be able to bury them.
"The last time I heard the voice of my brother, Mohammed, was on March 28 when he called and told me that the Israeli army executed our brother, Ahmed, and he would be killed too," he said.
"I heard gunfire in the place. My brother was afraid. I cannot imagine how he was killed, and whether he died quickly or did he suffer before he died."
On March 18, the Israeli army carried out a sudden large-scale military operation at the Al-Shifa Hospital, saying that Hamas and the PIJ used the hospital for military operations against Israel.
The Hamas-run media office said in a press statement that the Israeli army "killed at least 400 Palestinians and arrested over 900 others during its military operations at Al-Shifa hospital."
Medical and civil defense crews have pulled out dozens of decomposing bodies, including those of children, women, and medical staff, from the courtyards of the hospital, said Palestinian security sources who required anonymity.
The security sources said that the hospital had gone out of service as most parts of its buildings were destroyed, burned, or attacked by the Israeli army.
"It is impossible to resume the work soon inside the hospital as the Israeli army deliberately destroyed all medical equipment in the complex, including operating rooms, intensive care units, specialized departments, and mortuary refrigeration facilities," said a Palestinian medical source who requires anonymity.
In a press statement, Hamas described the Israeli raids on the Al-Shifa Hospital as "a horrific crime against civilians and the civilian structure in the Gaza Strip, with the full and unlimited support of the U.S. administration."
Hamas held the U.S. "fully responsible for the crimes, massacres, and systematic destruction of civilian life in Gaza, especially within the health sector, which was carried out with American weapons and all forms of military and political support."
Hamas urged the international community and the United Nations to "condemn this terrible crime against the Al-Shifa Medical Complex and its vicinity." ■
