World leaders and international humanitarian organizations have sharply criticized the Israeli attack on al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip.
After a week of incursions across Gaza in what some are calling a “war on hospitals”, governments, UN agencies and other humanitarian organizations expressed their distress on Wednesday as the Israeli army attacked al -Shifa, during which thousands of patients, employees and displaced people were killed. people are trapped.
Voices have been raised against Israel’s decision to directly target a facility that should be a refuge under the rules of war.
“Hospitals are not battlefields,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths told X.
“The protection of newborns, patients, medical personnel and all civilians must take precedence over all other concerns,” he said.
I am dismayed by reports of military raids on Al Shifa Hospital in #Gaza.
The protection of newborns, patients, medical personnel and all civilians must take precedence over all other concerns.
Hospitals are not battlefields.
– Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) November 15, 2023
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, acknowledged that the attacks are “deeply concerning.”
“We have lost contact with the healthcare staff at the hospital again,” Tedros said on X, adding: “We are extremely concerned for their safety and that of their patients.”
Reports of a military incursion into Al-Shifa Hospital are deeply worrying.
We again lost contact with the health staff at the hospital.
We are extremely concerned for their safety and that of their patients.
– Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 15, 2023
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was “extremely concerned about the impact on the sick and injured, medical personnel and civilians.”
“All necessary measures to avoid any consequences for them must be taken,” he added.
Growing criticism
The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday denounced the Israeli operation in Gaza’s largest hospital. The attack constitutes a “flagrant violation of international law,” according to a statement from the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, which demanded “urgent international intervention to protect civilians there.”
Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, delivered some of his strongest words yet.
“Together we face a barbaric war of aggression and an open war of genocide against our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” he said in a speech in Ramallah on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence.
The Gaza Strip government’s media office called for intervention to end the “holocaust.”
Leaders around the world added their voices to the condemnation and reiterated their calls for action to protect civilians.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “If Israel continues its massacres, it will be seen throughout the world as a “universally condemned terrorist state.” »
Jordan accused the UN Security Council on Wednesday of having allowed, through its silence, the “barbarity” of the Israeli raid on the main hospital in Gaza.
The misery at Shifa hospital shows the barbarity that the silence of the UN Security Council allows. How can the CS keep silent about forcing babies out of incubators?
We condemn the silence on this brutality. It covers war crimes. This is unacceptable, unjustifiable. The Council must act– Ayman Safadi (@AymanHsafadi) November 15, 2023
Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi wrote on X that the Council “provides cover for war crimes. This is unacceptable, unjustifiable. The Council must act.
The condemnation adds to growing criticism around the world over Israel’s bombing of Gaza and its refusal to agree to a humanitarian ceasefire as the death toll rises. More than 11,000 people are believed to have been killed in the enclave. Around 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attacks on October 7.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau added to this sentiment, warning Israel: “The world is watching. The world is witnessing this murder of women, children and babies. This must stop.
Belize joined other Latin American countries in suspending diplomatic relations with Israel and recalling its ambassador over its “indiscriminate bombing.”
Inside Al-Shifa
Although the UN estimates that around 2,300 people are inside al-Shifa hospital, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported on Wednesday that around 7,500 Palestinians, including patients, doctors and displaced people sheltered there.
Even before the raid, the situation inside the hospital was “horrible,” with medical procedures taking place without anesthesia, families living in hallways with little food or water, and the smell of decomposing bodies. filling the air, he reported.
Dr. Ahmed El Mohallalati, a surgeon, spoke by phone from the hospital and said staff hid as the fighting unfolded and tanks entered the hospital complex. “One of the big tanks came into the hospital through the east main gate, and they were, they were, they just parked in front of the emergency department of the hospital.”
“All kinds of weapons were used around the hospital. They targeted the hospital directly. We try to avoid being near windows,” he said.
Hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya described his failure to communicate with hospital doctors to inquire about patients’ conditions and said he was unaware of the condition premature babies who were treated there.
Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera that no one from the Israeli army had contacted him since the hospital was stormed and that water, electricity and oxygen were completely cut off inside.
“Patients’ wounds began to rot significantly after all hospital services were shut down,” he said. “The smell of death floats everywhere. »