Catastrophic Conditions in Gaza Hospitals: Israeli Army Operations Threaten Lives

2023-11-12 19:43:56

Violent Israeli army operations continue in the vicinity of Gaza hospitals – on Sunday – as it attempts to advance towards them, threatening the lives of thousands of Palestinians stuck in health facilities whose condition international organizations have warned is “catastrophic.”

Doctors Without Borders said on Sunday: “If we do not stop the bloodshed immediately through a ceasefire or the minimum evacuation of patients, these hospitals will become morgues.”

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Yousef Abu Al-Rish, announced that Israel “completely destroyed the heart department building in Al-Shifa Hospital,” the largest in the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands of displaced, wounded, and sick people are still stranded, while operations have been concentrated in its vicinity for two days.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that 20 of the 36 hospitals in Gaza are “out of service.”

Surgeon Muhammad Obaid, who is inside Al-Shifa Hospital, confirmed in an audio message published by “Doctors Without Borders” via the “X” platform, that water, electricity, and food were cut off inside the hospital for regarding 600 patients who underwent surgical operations, and the presence of between 37 and 40 children and 17 other people in intensive care. He added that the situation is “very, very bad.”

Bodies by the dozens

The director of Al-Shifa Complex, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, warned that “medical teams are unable to work, and the bodies in the dozens cannot be dealt with or buried.”

The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, expressed his concern – on Sunday – following “losing contact” with his interlocutors in Shifa.

Palestinian officials and doctors at Al-Shifa Hospital said on Saturday that the hospital was subjected to Israeli bombing several times.

One of the doctors working in Al-Shifa Hospital told the German News Agency, “The electricity was completely cut off due to the exhaustion of fuel, and that many medical workers fled to escape the fighting.”

Premature babies

According to Anadolu Medical sources, the doctors gathered 30 premature babies at the Al-Shifa Complex in one room, to provide them with a suitable temperature, so that they might survive in light of the malfunction of their incubators.

The personnel working in the Al-Shifa Complex were unable to count the number of deaths due to the continued Israeli targeting of the complex and its surroundings, which hinders movement in those targeted areas.

A doctor at Al-Shifa Hospital told Archyde.com that the bombing has been continuing for more than 24 hours. He added that most of the hospital workers and people who took refuge there had left, but 500 patients remained.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN agency responsible for providing humanitarian aid to children, said it was alarmed by “reports of premature babies dying in incubators.”

Israel tells the Palestinians that southern Gaza will be safe for them, but witnesses and journalists have seen many Israeli air strikes there as well.

On Sunday, Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al-Kaila accused Israel of committing a disaster inside the hospitals of the Gaza Strip, especially the Al-Shifa Medical Complex.

Al-Kaila said, in a press statement, that the Israeli army throws the wounded and sick into the street to certain death, and this is not an evacuation but rather an expulsion at gunpoint.

The number of buildings in the Al-Shifa Complex is regarding 10 buildings for various specialties, the most prominent of which are the intensive care buildings, heart surgery, burns, kidneys, and morgues.

Other hospitals

The battles are not limited to the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital, but are also taking place near other hospitals in northern Gaza, including the Indonesian Hospital. Its director, Atef Al-Kahlot, said that the lack of fuel needed to operate the generators prompted the cutting of electricity to the water desalination plant and medical equipment.

He explained that the hospital “is operating at regarding 30 to 40 percent of its capacity.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent Ambulance Society said, “Tanks and military vehicles are surrounding Al-Quds Hospital from all sides,” noting artillery shelling and gunfire in its vicinity.

He pointed out that the hospital includes regarding 500 patients and more than 14,000 displaced people, warning that infants “suffer from dehydration due to the lack of milk.”

Israeli forces also continue to besiege Al-Rantisi Hospital and Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital in the Al-Nasr neighborhood, and have become meters away from Al-Quds Hospital in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood, while they have not stormed any of them.

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