Doctors have warned of rising casualties among patients, including newborns, and fears of a spread of the disease are growing, as Israeli forces approach the Al Gates -Shifa, the main hospital in Gaza City.
Besieged for days by the Israeli army, doctors at the hospital reiterated Monday that the lack of fuel for electric generators was preventing them from saving patients. Israel has refused to back down, saying the hospital hides a Hamas base.
The fighting has been concentrated in an increasingly narrow circle around the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, where thousands of civilians have sought refuge.
The Israeli army, whose ground forces entered the Gaza Strip in late October and quickly surrounded the main northern settlement, Gaza City, said Al-Shifa was the main target in its battle to take control of the northern half of the enclave.
Israel says Hamas fighters have an underground headquarters in tunnels beneath the hospital and deliberately use their patients as a shield, a claim Hamas denies.
Reports on Monday suggested that thousands of people had fled the hospital. But large numbers of people also remain trapped inside.
At least 650 patients remain, as well as staff, said Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for Gaza’s health ministry, who was at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
He said an Israeli tank was parked outside the hospital gate.
“The tank is in front of the door of the outpatient department. This is what the situation looks like this morning,” al-Qudra told Reuters news agency by telephone.
Israeli snipers and drones were firing on the hospital, making it impossible for medical staff and patients to move around, he added.
“We are under siege and are in a circle of death,” he said.
The official said 32 patients had died in the past three days, including three newborns, due to the siege of the hospital and the power cut.
Nowhere to go
Israel asked civilians to leave and doctors to send patients elsewhere.
We didn’t know where they would go. Several hospitals and clinics in Gaza have been forced to close their doors, while others are already operating at full capacity with dwindling stocks. Meanwhile, Israeli forces surrounded the facility.
Israel also claimed that it attempted to evacuate babies from the al-Shifa neonatal ward and left 300 liters (79 gallons) of fuel to power emergency generators at the hospital entrance, but that Hamas blocked this offer and prevented the hospital from using the fuel.
The health ministry spokesperson denied discarding the fuel, adding that 300 liters would be enough to power the hospital for only half an hour.
Al-Shifa needed 8,000 to 10,000 liters (2,113 to 2,641 gallons) of fuel per day, to be delivered by the Red Cross or an international humanitarian agency, he told Reuters.
Medical Aid for Palestinians, a UK-based charity that supported al-Shifa’s neonatal intensive care unit, said transferring seriously ill infants was complex.
“With ambulances unable to reach the hospital…and no hospital having the capacity to receive them, there is no indication of how this can be done safely,” CEO Melanie Ward said. She said the only option was to suspend fighting and allow fuel supplies.
Gaza’s health ministry said that of 45 babies placed in incubators in al-Shifa, six had died as of Monday. Al-Qudra had no immediate update.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X that al-Shifa “no longer functions as a hospital.”
.@WHO managed to get in touch with healthcare professionals at Al-Shifa Hospital in #Gaza.
The situation is disastrous and perilous.
It’s been 3 days without power, water and very poor internet connection, which has seriously affected our ability to provide essential services…
– Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 12, 2023
“Tragically, the number of patient deaths has increased significantly,” he said. “The world cannot remain silent while hospitals, which should be places of refuge, turn into scenes of death, devastation and despair. »
Dr Alice Rothchild, of Jewish Voice for Peace, told Al Jazeera that diseases are “rampant” in Gaza’s hospitals.
“A modern 21st century hospital needs power and electricity to use all its instruments and equipment. Without fuel, even power generators and ambulances cannot function,” she said.
“Think about the hospital staff. The staff are exhausted, traumatized. Many of them are getting sick because contagious diseases are now rampant,” Dr. Rothchild said.
“What’s going to happen is people are going to suffer and some of them are going to die. They could die slowly due to sepsis, infection or gangrene. And some will die suddenly when their ventilator no longer works,” she added.
Weeks of conflict
The more than month-long conflict has polarized the world, with many countries saying that even the shocking brutality of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks did not justify an Israeli response that has killed so many civilians in overpopulated and besieged territory.
Israel says it must destroy Hamas, the group that rules Gaza, and that responsibility for harm to civilians lies with the fighters who intentionally hide among them.
He rejected demands for a ceasefire that he said would only prolong the suffering by giving Hamas a chance to regroup, a position supported by Washington, which nevertheless says it is pressuring its ally to protects civilians.
“The United States does not want to see firefights in hospitals where innocent patients receiving medical care are caught in the crossfire and we have had active consultations with (the Israeli military) on this matter.” , said Jake Sullivan, White House national security adviser. told CBS News.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to remain in the northern part of Gaza, where the fighting is concentrated, despite Israel’s order to leave. Israel has also regularly bombed the south, leaving Palestinians in Gaza saying they have nowhere safe to go.
The order to leave the north amounted to a choice “between staying at home, where your memories are and where you were born, and going nowhere or being bombed,” said Ahmed, 42, reached by phone in the Jabalia refugee camp. in northern Gaza.
“Most of the residents of Jabalia have not left and do not want to leave. Israel does not differentiate between the north and the south,” he said.
In the south, Israeli planes bombed several houses in Khan Younis. In one strike, health officials said seven people were killed and several injured.
At Nasser Hospital, people in private cars brought injured people, including children, to the emergency room.
“There are bodies under the rubble, we need ambulances,” one of the men shouted.