Military Life

The Israeli military has withdrawn from Gazas main hospital after a two-week raid, leaving behind a swathe of destruction, Palestinian residents said. Hundreds of people returned to al-Shifa Hospital and the surrounding area after the withdrawal early on Monday (1 April). al-Shifas main surgery building, which housed the intensive care unit, and the neighbouring building where the emergency, general surgery and orthopedics departments were located have been destroyed. There was no immediate comment from the military, which has described the raid as one of the most successful operations of the nearly six-month war.

Humanitarian aid was dropped over the Gaza Strip on Sunday 31 March, as Israel continued its military offensive in the besieged territory. There was no way of knowing which country dropped the supplies, as the airdrops are part of an international effort to work around extreme difficulties plaguing ground transport of aid into Gaza. Recent airdrops of aid by the US and other countries provide far lower amounts of aid than truck deliveries, which have become rare and sometimes dangerous. They have been met with some scepticism from UN officials and rights groups, who say that the method is not best practice when it comes to distributing much-needed aid.