Rimal

The head of the Gaza Strip's biggest hospital said on Monday he had been "tortured" by Israel after being freed from more than seven months of detention.

Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammed Abu Salmiya was among more than 50 Palestinians released and returned to Gaza for treatment, according to an Israeli minister and a medical source in the besieged territory.

Palestinian nurse Maha Sweylem came to the gutted shell of the Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza hoping for yet dreading news of her husband, who she said was a doctor there.

World Health Organization teams arrived at what was Gaza's biggest hospital Monday to help identify the bodies that litter the ruins.

Eyewitnesses report that the Israeli army is pulling back from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, as confirmed by an AFP journalist. Tanks are seen withdrawing from the premises, with the IDF allegedly firing shells to cover their exit before heading southwest of Gaza City.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Monday the Israeli military had withdrawn tanks and vehicles from the complex housing the besieged territory's main hospital, Al-Shifa, days after the launch of a major operation on the site as deadly airstrikes pounded Gaza.

The Israeli military conducted a large-scale operation at the Al-Shifa hospital complex in the Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of dozens of Palestinian fighters and the arrest of over 200 individuals, according to reports from AFP. The operation forced hundreds of civilians to flee the area.

Amidst escalating tensions in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has initiated an operation within the region's largest hospital, "Al-Shifa." According to a statement from the military, the operation is a response to intelligence indicating that senior members of the Islamist group Hamas are utilizing the medical facility as a strategic base for launching attacks against Israel.

The Israeli army launched Monday an operation around Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, with witnesses reporting air strikes on the devastated neighbourhood where it is located.

Israeli soldiers "are currently conducting a precise operation in the area of the Shifa hospital", a statement from the military said.

Palestinian medical personnel in the war-torn Gaza Strip have been subjected to severe maltreatment, including being blindfolded, stripped and repeatedly beaten, after an Israeli raid at a hospital last month, a BBC report said on March 12.

They were killed, let's recall, while they were moving towards humanitarian trucks in Gaza.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said that "this monstrous massacre is proof that as long as the Security Council is paralyzed and the veto is applied, the Palestinians pay with their lives."

The health authorities in Gaza have reported that the number of Palestinians killed in the ongoing conflict with Israel has surpassed 30,000, according to a report from BTA. The Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Territory released a statement confirming 79 casualties in Israeli airstrikes overnight, although this information has not been independently verified.