Nurses recall the horror of Israeli raids and interrogations, saying soldiers beat and humiliated them when they refused to leave patients behind.
The Indonesian hospital, one of the largest health facilities in northern Gaza, was so badly damaged by Israeli attacks that it may never reopen.
On Saturday, Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, told Tel Aviv Tribune: “We are shocked and horrified by the scenes left by Israeli forces at the Indonesian hospital.”
Israeli tanks and snipers besieged the Beit Lahia hospital for days, before targeting its main generator and attacking it in the early hours of Friday, shortly before a truce took effect. four days between Israel and Hamas.
The ministry said Friday that the hospital was under “heavy bombardment” by the Israeli army and that there were fears for the lives of 200 injured people and medical staff. He added that intense Israeli fire killed a wounded woman and injured at least three others.
Now in ruins, the hospital is overwhelmed by large numbers of injured people and severe shortages of medical supplies. “Corridors have become rooms and surgeons operate upstairs,” said Tel Aviv Tribune’s Osama Bin Javaid, who had access to the facility.
“Outside the hospital, the stench of death forces people to hold their noses, while charred and decomposing bodies, including children, pile up in the corners. No funerals have taken place for days because Israeli snipers targeted anyone who ventured outside to dig a grave,” he said.
Reporting from the hospital after the raid, Anas al-Sharif, one of the few journalists left in northern Gaza, said: “The occupying forces damaged and destroyed large parts of the hospital . There has been major destruction here. Even equipment and supplies were destroyed by the occupying forces. »
Recalling the horror of the Israeli raid and the interrogations of hospital staff, a nurse told Tel Aviv Tribune: “When they stormed the hospital, we told them that we were nurses, civilians, and that we had children and sick people here. »
“They questioned me and three other nurses. They asked me about the resistance and if there were any fighters here. They asked questions about going in and out of the hospital. We were all panicking. We were very scared,” she added.
Another nurse recalled how Israeli forces targeted the fourth floor of the facility with a missile and cut off electricity and solar power to the buildings.
“We had 25 people with pelvic fractures that couldn’t be moved. They blew up this entrance, they shot the patients inside. They searched us one by one and scanned everyone’s faces. I told them I was a nurse,” the emergency department nurse told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“They took me to this corner and beat me, and asked me many questions about the hospital, the Israeli captives and hostages – if I knew anything about them. Each question was accompanied by a slap.
“After they left, we could have left, but I promised that I would never leave my patients alone and that I would be the last to leave this hospital,” the nurse said.
Hundreds of displaced people had already sought asylum at the hospital, also close to the Jabalia refugee camp.
With the facility out of commission for weeks and the damage extensive, it remains unclear whether it will ever reopen.