They had entered it at dawn. Israeli soldiers and tanks withdrew Wednesday night from Gaza's al-Shifa hospital to reposition themselves around the huge compound that Israel accuses Palestinian Hamas of using as a military base, an AFP journalist reported.
Since Wednesday morning, the Israeli army said it was carrying out a "targeted operation" in the facility, which the UN said was home to about 2,300 people, including patients, health workers and displaced people. Hamas denies having a presence in al-Shifa, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Medicine and infant food left behind by Israelis
During its operation in the hospital, the army interrogated dozens of civilians, some of whom were stripped naked, leaving them in their underwear, the journalist added, adding that all were released.
Read alsoIsrael-Hamas war: a night of fighting at Al-Shifa hospital and the fear of humanitarian "chaos"
As they withdrew, the Israeli soldiers left behind medicine, infant food and bottled water, he said. By midday, a senior Israeli defense official had assured that a specific area of al-Shifa hospital was involved in the "precise and targeted operation."
Video. Gaza: Israel conducts 'targeted' operation in Al-Shifa hospital
Al-Shifa Hospital, in the coastal west of Gaza City, has been at the heart of fighting between the Israeli army and Palestinian fighters for several days. It represents a major objective for Israel, which has vowed to "annihilate" Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since the bloody attack by the Islamist movement that killed 1,200 people on its soil on 7 October, according to Israeli authorities. Since this unprecedented attack, the Israeli army has been relentlessly besieging and bombing the Gaza Strip and its 2.4 million inhabitants, more than half of whom have been displaced. The strikes killed more than 11,300 people, according to Hamas' Health Ministry.