By Abeer Salman, Khader Al Za’anoun, Ibrahim Dahman, Sana Noor Haq, Kareen Khadder, Lauren Izso and Tim Lister | CNN
Israeli forces detained Palestinian journalists and health workers, blindfolded them and stripped them down to their underwear in Al-Shifa Hospital, in northern Gaza, according to eyewitness accounts shared with CNN.
Palestinian reporters and hospital staff described scenes of humiliating interrogations where colleagues had been undressed and left outside in the cold, after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) laid siege to the largest hospital in the enclave in the early hours of Monday. One man who was detained told CNN Israeli forces released him without his ID or mobile phone.
The Israeli military raided Al-Shifa after it claimed “senior Hamas terrorists” were using the facility to “conduct and promote terrorist activity.” It claims to have detained a senior Hamas operative during the operation.
CNN cannot independently verify the IDF’s statements.
Ismail Al Ghoul, an Al Jazeera journalist, told CNN he and his team were detained for 12 hours, stripped to their underwear and blindfolded throughout – despite the rain and cold. Another of the team, Ahmad al-Harazin, said that “while we were sitting [there], the [Israeli] army suddenly raided and arrested us. God Almighty kept us safe. And we were released.”
Samer Tarazi, who was also part of Al Ghoul’s team at Al-Shifa, told CNN he had just finished working at 2 a.m. local time on Monday when the Israeli military stormed the complex and detained them.
“We were blindfolded and handcuffed while we were waiting for our release. We were waiting, not knowing where we were, or where we were taken to,” he said. After his detention, the IDF told Tarazi and his colleagues to flee south, along the coastal Al Rashid Street. “We were released without getting our IDs or mobile phones back,” he added.
Al Jazeera alleged in a statement Monday that Al Ghoul and his team were detained and “severely beaten” before being taken to an undisclosed location and interrogated. The IDF told CNN they had no record of detaining Al Ghoul or his colleagues.
CNN also received an account from Dr Marwan Abu Saada, head of surgery at Al-Shifa. Abu Saada was not at the hospital when the Israeli raid began on Monday. He said on Tuesday that colleagues who had been permitted to leave the hospital reported Israeli troops breaking into most of the hospital buildings.
He said male medical staff were forced to strip and left “for hours in the cold,” an assertion made by other men who have been released from the area. “They scanned their faces with a camera and took them one by one for humiliating investigation,” he said in the account, shared with CNN by a colleague.
“Many were arrested and were taken to an unknown place, some were forced to leave the hospital and displaced to the south half naked, and others were ordered to go back to the hospital,” added Abu Saada.
“Soldiers assaulted and violated our medical staff and workers in Al-Shifa Hospital, left them without food or water for two days, taking into consideration that this is the month of Ramadan and they are fasting.”
CNN has asked the IDF for its response to the allegations levied by Saada. The IDF has not so far responded.
The IDF said in a statement Wednesday that its troops, along with those of the Israeli Security Agency, “killed approximately 90 terrorists in the area.” It added that forces questioned “over 300 suspects” and took at least 160 others to Israeli territory “for further questioning.” CNN cannot independently verify the IDF’s claims.
Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza after the militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,200 people, including 36 children, and kidnapping more than 250 others.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 31,923 Palestinians, and injured another 74,096 people, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave.
Israel turned Al-Shifa Hospital into a battleground in November, when it carried out what it called a “precise and targeted” raid on the complex. Doctors were forced to work by candlelight and wrap premature babies in foil to keep them alive. Dozens of patients died due to a lack of electricity, according to a report released in November.
Health workers have previously told CNN they cannot offer life-saving treatment to Palestinians wounded in the war – including children and infants – because Israel’s bombardment and besiegement of Gazan hospitals has crushed the medical system. The IDF claims Hamas uses hospitals for its military operations. Hamas denies using hospitals as cover. CNN cannot independently verify either claim.
Hospitals are protected civilian objects under international humanitarian law. It is illegal, with few exceptions, to attack medical facilities, or to otherwise prevent them from providing care. A hospital can only lose its protected status if it is used by an armed group for acts that are considered “harmful to the enemy.”
But, even then, patients and doctors inside are still protected by the principle of proportionality. A warning must be given, and time for safe evacuation, before carrying out an attack.
Claims of interrogations, killings and torture
Footage emerged earlier this week showing piles of debris and plumes of smoke filling the area around Al-Shifa, as families ran in terror after a deafening missile strike near the hospital. Unaccompanied children clambered over slabs of fallen concrete, desperately trying to escape the horror.
At least 3,000 displaced people, patients and staff were trying to seek shelter inside the walls of the facility before the deadly raid, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Those trying to flee were targeted by Israeli snipers and fire from helicopters, the ministry said on Monday.
Mahmoud Basal, civil defense spokesman in Gaza, told CNN Wednesday that “the situation in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital is very difficult and that of the citizens inside the hospital is very difficult. This is the second day when citizens do not drink water and there are none of the necessities of life.”
Basal alleged that citizens inside the hospital had spoken of interrogations, killing and torture. The Israeli army was removing wounded people from inside the hospital “even when they cannot walk or move,” he said, adding that these people were reaching the Baptist Hospital three kilometers away “in a very difficult condition.”
“We in the civil defence cannot reach the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital because the conditions there are difficult,” Basal said.
He said people there were afraid to speak with journalists and asserted that one of the freelance reporters there – Mahmoud Aliwa – was detained by Israeli troops. CNN has asked the IDF about the reported detention of Aliwa and the movement of wounded people to Al Ahli Baptist hospital.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has been the deadliest war for journalists since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). At least 95 reporters had been killed and 16 injured as of March 20, while four were reported missing and 25 arrested, according to CPJ figures. There have been numerous reported incidents of assaults, threats, cyberattacks, censorship, and killings of family members.
The IDF ordered residents and displaced persons near the sprawling medical complex to travel to what it called a “humanitarian zone” further south. However, those warnings came after the hospital had already come under siege, according to one witness. CNN has asked the IDF for further details about the people it says it has killed or detained during the raid on Al-Shifa and in the neighborhood.
CNN has previously reported on Palestinian civilians who followed evacuation orders being killed by Israeli strikes, underscoring the reality that evacuation zones and warning alerts from the Israeli military haven’t guaranteed safety for civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip.