Israeli forces have killed more than 400 people, including patients, the displaced, and medical workers during their 13-day siege of Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s government media office reported on 31 March.
The ministry added that during the siege on Gaza’s largest medical facility, where thousands of patients and displaced people are sheltering, Israeli troops have detained and tortured hundreds while destroying and or setting fire to 1,050 nearby houses.
On 27 March, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported that Israeli forces had killed 13 children between the ages of 4 and 16 during operations in and around Al-Shifa in the previous week.
“Some of the fatal shootings occurred during an Israeli army siege while the victims’ families were inside their homes; others occurred when the victims attempted to escape via routes that the Israeli army had designated as ‘safe’ after forcibly evacuating them from their homes and places of residence,” the report stated.
Islam Ali Salouha, who lives close to Al-Shifa, told Euro-Med that Israeli forces killed his sons Ali, nine, and Saeed Muhammad Sheikha, six, while the family fled the area after being expelled from their home. Israeli forces specifically targeted the children with live bullets, he said.
Euro-Med reports that according to Salouha, on the afternoon of Sunday, 24 March, the Israeli army ordered everyone in the vicinity, through loudspeakers, to leave their homes or their homes would be bombed. He and his family fled on a corpse-strewn road that the Israeli army had designated for travel.
After walking only 10s of meters, Israeli forces opened fire on the family, killing the two children.
Salouha said that as they attempted to pull his two children off the ground, Israeli forces opened fire on them again, forcing them to leave Ali and Saeed on the ground and flee.
Safa Hassouna, a Palestinian woman living near Al-Shifa, told The National how she was forced to leave her home near the hospital when Israeli forces “broke in and forced them to leave.”
When Israeli forces began launching repeated raids on Al Shifa almost two weeks ago, Ms. Hassouna had decided to remain in her home to avoid shelling. However, Israeli forces later raided her home.
“They bombed the door and forced us out,” she said.
Hassouna said Israeli forces abducted her husband and two sons and told her to flee south with her daughter.
“They forced my husband and my sons to take off their clothes. They took them, and me and my daughter left,” she said.
Hassouna said her husband and one son have been released, but the fate of her other son is unknown. As he was escorted away, Israeli troops used him as a human shield for their tank.
“I don’t know anything about him, and I am worried,” she told The National from southern Gaza, where she is now staying.
“We are experiencing all the sorrow and sadness. Enough is enough.”