Witness recounts destruction of buildings around al-Shifa hospital

Samer Abed, an eyewitness who preferred not to share his full name, spoke to Middle East Eye's correspondent in Gaza City about the Israeli army's destruction of homes and buildings around al-Shifa Medical Complex.

Abed, who is currently staying around 400 metres away from the hospital, said he and his brothers started receiving calls from the Israeli army roughly a week after the start of their raid on al-Shifa.

The man on the phone instructed them to get residents out of buildings in the vicinity they were about to blow up, and send them to the south of the Gaza Strip.

Prior to that, Abed said buildings would be blown up without prior warning.

The army would give them a certain amount of time before starting to bomb the area.

“The bombs go down and don’t care about us," he said.

While the residents in Abed's area were mostly unharmed, save for a few injuries, others, particularly those closer to the hospital, were not so lucky.

Some buildings were blown up with their residents inside, killing scores and leaving many under the rubble. The strike on the Abu Hasira home, near the hospital, killed at least 30 people.

MEE's correspondent says the Israeli army strike levelled almost every single building in al-Shifa's vicinity.

The Israeli army then reportedly retreated from certain areas, including al-Shati camp's Aidiya street, following heavy clashes. They are now positioned roughly 200 metres away from al-Shifa.

Reporting by Mohammed al-Hajjar.