A general view shows the destruction in the area surrounding Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital after the Israeli military withdrew from the complex housing the hospital on April 1, 2024. Photo by AFP.
Geneva: The World Health Organization said on Saturday that Gaza's largest hospital had been reduced to ashes by Israel's latest siege, leaving an "empty shell" with many bodies.
WHO staff who gained access on Friday to the devastated facility described horrifying scenes of bodies only partially buried, with their limbs sticking out, and the stench of decomposing corpses.
Israeli forces pulled out of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Monday after a two-week military operation, during which it said it had battled Palestinian "militants" inside what was once the Palestinian territory's most important medical complex.
A WHO-led mission finally accessed the hospital on Friday, after multiple failed attempts since March 25, the United Nations health agency said.
It found massive destruction and heard reports that patients had been "held in abysmal conditions" during the siege and several had died.
"WHO and partners managed to reach Al-Shifa -- once the backbone of the health system in Gaza, which is now an empty shell with human graves after the latest siege," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
In a statement, WHO said no patients remained in the hospital, where "numerous shallow graves" had been dug just outside the emergency department and the administrative and surgical buildings.
"Many dead bodies were partially buried with their limbs visible," it said.
'Decomposing bodies'
During their visit, WHO staff witnessed "at least five bodies lying partially covered on the ground, exposed to the heat", it said.
"The team reported a pungent smell of decomposing bodies engulfing the hospital compound." "Safeguarding dignity, even in death, is an indispensable act of humanity," the WHO stressed.
The mission, which was conducted in cooperation with other UN agencies and the acting hospital director, found that "the scale of devastation has left the facility completely non-functional".
"Most of the buildings in the hospital complex are extensively destroyed and the majority of assets damaged or reduced to ashes," Tedros said. "Even restoring minimal functionality in the short term seems implausible."
WHO said the acting hospital director had described how patients were "held in abysmal conditions during the siege". "They endured severe lack of food, water, health care, hygiene and sanitation, and were forced to relocate between buildings at gun point," it said.
At least 20 patients reportedly died, it said, "due to the lack of access to care and limited movement authorised for health personnel".
