The ministry said dozens of bodies had been found at the complex, where an AFP journalist and eyewitnesses saw tanks and vehicles pulling out.
The Israeli military did not immediately confirm any pullout.
Eyewitnesses said dozens of air strikes and shells had hit the area around the complex.
The Hamas government media office said the Israeli air strikes had provided cover for the withdrawing vehicles.
The army launched its operation on March 18 and has described it as a “precise” one targeting Hamas militants it accused of operating from the complex.
It has previously said 200 militants had been killed in fighting in and around Al-Shifa.
Hamas has denied operating from Al-Shifa and other health facilities.
“Dozens of bodies, some of them decomposed, have been recovered from in and around the Al-Shifa medical complex,” the health ministry said in a statement.
The Israeli military “withdrew from the Al-Shifa medical complex after burning down the complex buildings and putting it completely out of service,” it said.
“The scale of the destruction inside the complex and the buildings around it is very large.”
An AFP journalist on the scene said several buildings inside the complex had been damaged, with some areas showing damage from fire.
A doctor told AFP more than 20 bodies had been recovered and that some had been crushed by withdrawing vehicles.
With hundreds of thousands of Gazans displaced by the war, hundreds had sought refuge at the Al-Shifa complex prior to the operation.
Israeli troops first raided Al-Shifa in November, but said militants had since returned.
Deadly air strikes pounded other areas of the Gaza Strip earlier today, while fighting raged in several flashpoints located across the territory, AFP reports.
At least 60 people died in Gaza during the night, the health ministry said today.
Meanwhile, the ministry said the Israeli military had withdrawn tanks and vehicles from the complex housing the Al-Shifa Hospital. “Dozens of bodies, some of them decomposed, have been recovered from in and around the Al-Shifa medical complex,” it said in a statement.
The Israeli military “withdrew from the Al-Shifa medical complex after burning down the complex buildings and putting it completely out of service”, it said. “The scale of the destruction inside the complex and the buildings around it is very large.”
An AFP journalist on the scene said several buildings inside the complex had been damaged, with some areas showing damage from fire. A doctor told AFP more than 20 bodies had been recovered and that some had been crushed by withdrawing vehicles.
Intense fightingDeadly air strikes pounded other areas of the Gaza Strip early Monday, while fighting raged in several flashpoints located across the territory.
At least 60 people died in Gaza during the night, the health ministry said Monday.
The war erupted when Hamas carried out its unprecedented attacks on Israel, which resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,782 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The Israeli military on Monday announced 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the start of the war.
During the October 7 attacks, Palestinian militants also seized around 250 Israeli and foreign hostages.
Israel believes about 130 hostages remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.
The Israel-Hamas war has devastated much of Gaza, including several health facilities, and sparked warnings of famine among the civilian population.
A UN Security Council resolution on March 25 demanded an “immediate ceasefire” and the release of all hostages held by militants, but the binding resolution has failed to curb the fighting, including in or around hospitals.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on social media platform X that an Israeli air strike on Sunday hit “a tent camp” inside the Al-Aqsa hospital compound in central Gaza, killing four people and wounding 17.
Israel’s military denied that the hospital was damaged, saying on X that one of its planes had “struck an operational Islamic Jihad command center and terrorists positioned in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the area of Deir al Balah.”
Tensions have risen between Israel and its chief backer the United States over the spiralling civilian death toll, and especially over Israeli threats to send ground forces into Gaza’s crowded far-southern city of Rafah.
Possible Rafah incursion
Around 1.4 million people who fled their homes elsewhere in Gaza have sought shelter in Rafah, the only part of the territory Israeli troops have yet to enter.
Washington has nonetheless approved billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets for Israel in recent days, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underwent “successful” hernia surgery, his office said Monday.
Doctors had discovered the hernia on Saturday during a routine checkup, with Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Yariv Levin standing in for Netanyahu during the operation.
Netanyahu, who has repeatedly vowed to crush Hamas and bring all the hostages home, has faced growing pressure from Israelis demanding the release of those taken by militants on October 7.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Jerusalem for a second consecutive night on Sunday, calling for greater efforts to free the hostages held in Gaza and the ousting of Netanyahu.
Demonstrators blocked a main city highway after earlier rallying in front of the Israeli parliament, lighting fires and waving Israeli flags.
Meanwhile, in a bid to help alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s 2.4 million people, an aid ship was sailing from the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus to bring 400 tons of food, as part of a small flotilla.
Foreign powers have ramped up aid airdrops, although United Nations agencies and charities warn this falls far short of the dire need and say trucks are the most efficient way of delivering aid.
Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters battled in close combat around Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital on Thursday, where the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they attacked Israeli soldiers and tanks with rockets and mortar fire
The Israeli army said it continued to operate around the hospital complex in Gaza City after storming it more than a week ago. Its forces had killed around 200 gunmen since the start of the operation “while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment,” it said.
Gaza’s health ministry said wounded people and patients were being held inside an administration building in Al-Shifa that was not equipped to provide them with health care. Five patients had died since the Israeli raid began due to shortages of food, water and medical care, the Hamas-run ministry said.
Al-Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital before the war, had been one of the few health care facilities even partially operational in north Gaza before the latest fighting. It had also been housing displaced civilians.
Unverified footage on social media showed its surgery unit blackened by flames and nearby apartments on fire or destroyed.
The armed wings of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups said in a statement they “bombed, with a barrage of mortar shells, gatherings of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Al-Shifa Complex” in a joint operation.
Islamic Jihad targeted an Israeli tank with an anti-tank rocket outside the hospital, it said in another statement. The Israeli military said militants fired at its troops from inside and outside the ER building.
Israel says it is targeting Hamas militants who use civilian buildings, including apartment blocks and hospitals, for cover. Hamas denies doing so.
At least 32,552 Palestinians have been killed and 74,980 wounded in Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, the territory’s health ministry said on Thursday.
Thousands more dead are believed to be buried under rubble and over 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is displaced, many at risk of famine.
The war erupted after Hamas militants broke through the border and rampaged through communities in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
TWO MORE HOSPITALS BESIEGED
Israeli forces continued to blockade Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis, while several other areas in the southern Gaza city came under Israeli fire, residents said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said seven people working for the organization arrested in a raid on Al-Amal hospital on Feb. 9 had been released after 47 days in Israeli prisons.
Among them was the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Abu Musabeh. Eight members of the association were still being detained, it said in a statement.
Israel said soldiers from its Commando Brigade had arrested dozens of Palestinian militants in the Al-Amal area and discovered explosives and dozens of Kalashnikov-type weapons.
The World Health Organization said Al-Amal Hospital had ceased to function due to fighting, leaving just 10 of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip partially operational.
“Once more, WHO demands an immediate end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza, and calls for protection of health staff, patients, and civilians,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X on Thursday.
In Rafah, where over a million people have been sheltering, health officials said an Israeli airstrike on a house killed eight people and wounded others.
Israel says it plans a ground offensive into Rafah, where it believes most Hamas fighters are now sheltering. Its closest ally and main arms supplier the United States opposes such an assault, arguing it would cause too much harm to civilians who have sought refuge there.
The Israeli army said it continued to operate around the hospital complex in Gaza City after storming it more than a week ago. Its forces had killed around 200 gunmen since the start of the operation “while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment,” it said.
Gaza’s health ministry said wounded people and patients were being held inside an administration building in Al-Shifa that was not equipped to provide them with health care. Five patients had died since the Israeli raid began due to shortages of food, water and medical care, the Hamas-run ministry said.
Al-Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital before the war, had been one of the few health care facilities even partially operational in north Gaza before the latest fighting. It had also been housing displaced civilians.
Unverified footage on social media showed its surgery unit blackened by flames and nearby apartments on fire or destroyed.
The armed wings of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups said in a statement they “bombed, with a barrage of mortar shells, gatherings of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Al-Shifa Complex” in a joint operation.
Islamic Jihad targeted an Israeli tank with an anti-tank rocket outside the hospital, it said in another statement. The Israeli military said militants fired at its troops from inside and outside the ER building.
Israel says it is targeting Hamas militants who use civilian buildings, including apartment blocks and hospitals, for cover. Hamas denies doing so.
At least 32,552 Palestinians have been killed and 74,980 wounded in Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, the territory’s health ministry said on Thursday.
Thousands more dead are believed to be buried under rubble and over 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is displaced, many at risk of famine.
The war erupted after Hamas militants broke through the border and rampaged through communities in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
TWO MORE HOSPITALS BESIEGED
Israeli forces continued to blockade Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis, while several other areas in the southern Gaza city came under Israeli fire, residents said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said seven people working for the organization arrested in a raid on Al-Amal hospital on Feb. 9 had been released after 47 days in Israeli prisons.
Among them was the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Abu Musabeh. Eight members of the association were still being detained, it said in a statement.
Israel said soldiers from its Commando Brigade had arrested dozens of Palestinian militants in the Al-Amal area and discovered explosives and dozens of Kalashnikov-type weapons.
The World Health Organization said Al-Amal Hospital had ceased to function due to fighting, leaving just 10 of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip partially operational.
“Once more, WHO demands an immediate end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza, and calls for protection of health staff, patients, and civilians,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X on Thursday.
In Rafah, where over a million people have been sheltering, health officials said an Israeli airstrike on a house killed eight people and wounded others.
Israel says it plans a ground offensive into Rafah, where it believes most Hamas fighters are now sheltering. Its closest ally and main arms supplier the United States opposes such an assault, arguing it would cause too much harm to civilians who have sought refuge there.
