Network reported “CNN“Al-Akhbariya reported that Israeli forces arrested Palestinian journalists and health workers, blindfolded them and stripped them of their clothes, including their underwear, in Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, according to what it reported from eyewitness accounts, while the Israeli army did not respond to these accusations.
Speaking to CNN, Palestinian reporters and hospital employees described “scenes of humiliating interrogations,” where their colleagues were stripped of their clothes and left outside in the cold, after the Israeli army imposed a siege on the largest hospital in the Strip, on Monday.
On Monday, the Israeli army raided Al-Shifa Hospital after it said “senior Hamas terrorists” were using the facility to “conduct and promote terrorist activity.”
The Israeli army indicated that it “arrested a senior Hamas activist during the operation,” while CNN said that it could not independently verify the Israeli army’s statements.
Detention and stripping
Qatari Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul said that he and his team were detained for 12 hours, stripped to their underwear and blindfolded the entire time, despite the rain and cold.
Ahmed Al-Harazin, another member of the team, said: “While we were sitting (there), the (Israeli) army suddenly raided us and arrested us…then we were released.”
Samer Tarazi, who was also part of Al-Ghoul’s team at Al-Shifa, told CNN that he had just finished work at 2 a.m. local time on Monday when the Israeli army stormed the compound and arrested them.
He added: “We were blindfolded and handcuffed while we were waiting for our release. We were waiting, not knowing where we were or where we were being taken.”
After his arrest, the Israeli army asked Al-Tarazi and his colleagues to flee south, along Al-Rashid Al-Sahili Street, as he indicated in his interview.
He continued: “We were released without our identities or mobile phones being recovered.”
On Monday, Al Jazeera said in a statement that “Al-Ghoul and his team were detained and severely beaten before being taken to an unknown location and interrogated.”
But on the other hand, the Israeli army told CNN that it has no record of arresting Al-Ghoul or his colleagues.
From inside the hospital
CNN received a report from Dr. Marwan Abu Saada, head of the surgery department at Al-Shifa Hospital.
Abu Saada was not in the hospital when the Israeli raid began on Monday, and he said on Tuesday that his colleagues who were allowed to leave the hospital reported that Israeli forces stormed most of the hospital buildings.
He said the male medical staff were forced to undress and left “for hours in the cold,” an assertion made by other men who were released from the area, according to CNN.
He added: “They scanned their faces with the camera and took them one by one to conduct a (humiliating investigation).”
Abu Saada continued: “Many were arrested and taken to an unknown destination. Some were forced to leave the hospital and were displaced to the south half-naked, while others were ordered to return to the hospital.”
He continued: “Soldiers attacked our medical teams and workers at Al-Shifa Hospital, and left them without food or water for two days, taking into account that this is the month of Ramadan and they are fasting.”
The Al-Hurra website was unable to confirm the authenticity of these accounts through independent sources, and the Israeli army did not respond to requests for comment until the time of publication of the report.
CNN asked the Israeli army to respond to the accusations, but it did not respond either.
On Thursday, the Israeli army announced that it had killed “more than 140” Palestinian fighters in the Al-Shifa Medical Complex and its surroundings in northern Gaza City, which it stormed at dawn on Monday after surrounding it with tanks.
“Since the start of the operation, more than 140 terrorists have been eliminated in the hospital area,” the army said in a statement, adding that more than 50 of the dead occurred during battles on Wednesday.
The Israeli army explained that the forces interrogated “more than 300 suspects” and took at least 160 others to Israeli territory for further interrogation, and CNN cannot independently verify what the Israeli army said.
“Dangerous combat zone”… Will battles be renewed in northern Gaza?
Al-Shifa Hospital, located in the northern Gaza Strip, has returned to the forefront again, after witnessing violent clashes between the Israeli army and the Hamas movement, which is classified as a terrorist organization in the United States and other countries, while specialists reveal to Al-Hurra website the circumstances of “the ignition of that front again,” and their expectations of what might happen during The coming days.
CNN asked the Israeli army to provide more details about the people it says it killed or arrested during the raid on Shifa and in the neighborhood, but did not receive a response.
The war broke out in the Gaza Strip following the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, which killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, including women and children, according to the Israeli authorities.
In response to the attack, Israel pledged to “eliminate the movement,” and has since carried out a bombing campaign followed by ground operations since October 27, killing 31,988 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children, and wounding 74,188, according to what the Hamas Ministry of Health announced on Thursday.
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