Since the onset of the genocidal war Israel launched against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government, military, and media have singularly focused on one target in Gaza: the Al-Shifa Hospital Compound. The Israeli regime consistently levied various allegations against the hospital. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) labeled it the “main headquarters for Hamas’ terrorist activities.” Additionally, the IOF released a 12-second animation depicting a complex network of tunnels, bunkers, and command centers beneath Gaza’s principal hospital.
On several occasions, U.S. officials supported Israel’s accusations, albeit without providing concrete evidence. Over forty days, Israel relentlessly bombed Gaza City, transforming a metropolis of a million residents into a ghost town. The northern towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun have been decimated. Amid its fierce bombardment, Israel’s propaganda machine, backed by Western media and governments, persistently targeted Gaza’s hospitals.
In the last 72 hours, the Israeli army captured the Al-Shifa hospital compound. This assault resulted in numerous Palestinian casualties, and many more, including thousands of doctors, nurses, patients, and refugees trapped inside, now face an uncertain future. They are isolated from the outside world, deprived of food, water, electricity, internet, and, gravely, at the mercy of the Israeli military.
Two days ago, the world was shaken by images of Palestinians in Al-Shifa frantically trying to save neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) babies. Doctors, nurses, and even children navigated the hospital, desperately trying to keep these infants alive. The hospital yard transformed into a mass grave, with the bodies of Palestinians, shot by Israeli forces, left to decay outside the compound.
However, the question remains: Why is Israel actually attacking Al-Shifa? To date, the Israeli military, despite having entered the hospital, has failed to provide evidence to substantiate its claims of militant activity on the scale alleged in its propaganda videos and statements.
The assault on Al-Shifa, though, seems to be motivated by reasons Israel has not explicitly disclosed. It appears that Israel is leveraging this genocidal war, supported fully by the U.S. and Western allies, to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. The current situation in Gaza City and northern Gaza marks the onset of a process of expulsion and uprooting, reminiscent of the 1948 Nakba.
To fulfill this objective, Israel is targeting institutions critical to Palestinian life in Gaza City, with Al-Shifa hospital being a prime example. Al-Shifa, a sprawling complex, includes numerous hospitals, clinics, and centers offering essential services to Gazans, especially given the blockade and restricted access to medical treatment abroad.
But Al-Shifa is more than a hospital. In times of crisis and conflict, its central location makes it a gathering place for ordinary Gazans and journalists, a venue for press conferences (during this war, Palestinian children held a press conference outside the hospital, pleading for an end to Israel’s bombardment), a site where families receive the remains of loved ones, and a sanctuary where the injured find care.
During aggressions on Gaza, Al-Shifa becomes a crucial hub for Palestinians to connect and check on one another. In this war, the hospital, due to its size relative to other structures in Gaza City, has sheltered thousands of displaced Palestinians, either those whose homes were destroyed or who were expelled from their neighborhoods.
By seizing and ravaging Al-Shifa, Israel signals the end of life in Gaza City as Palestinians have known it for decades. Removing the hospital from Gaza’s healthcare equation also obscures the extent of casualties and injuries among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who remain north of Wadi Ghazza.
In 1967, following Gaza’s occupation by Israeli forces, Egypt’s then military governor of Gaza, Major General Abdel Mon’em al-Hassani, surrendered to Israeli forces at Al-Shifa. Thus, for Israeli leaders, the fall of Al-Shifa also bears historical significance, albeit irrelevant today. Regardless of Al-Shifa’s fate, Palestinians in Gaza will not capitulate to Israel’s brutal conquest and their forced expulsion from their homes.
Until when will the world continue to tolerate the lies and crimes of Israel? These are costly lies, as thousands continue to lose their lives and hundreds of thousands are displaced.
