Gaza City – Israeli warplanes continued to attack hospitals in Gaza City.
After another communications and network outage on Sunday, the Nasser medical complex, which has four hospitals, came under indirect and direct fire from Israeli missiles.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least eight Palestinians were killed in these attacks and dozens were injured.
The medical complex included Al-Nasser Children’s Hospital, Rantisi Specialized Hospital, Eye Hospital and Psychiatric Hospital.
“The (Israeli) army called some of our staff that night and told them they were going to create a ring of fire around the hospital,” said Suleiman Qaoud, a doctor at Rantisi hospital. .
Around 6:30 p.m. (16:30 GMT), Israeli military planes struck the area between the psychiatric hospital and Rantisi hospital, injuring 35 people, including some medical staff. Two hours later, Rantisi hospital was hit along with its southeast and northeast sides.
A children’s cancer ward is located on the northeast side of the hospital, Qaoud said. “More than 30 children were receiving chemotherapy treatment there,” he said.
The hospital was then attacked a third time, with strikes hitting grounds where ambulances and other vehicles were parked and displaced families had taken shelter.
“We have between 80 and 100 patients and 700 displaced families, or around 5,000 people,” Qaoud said.
“Solar panels and water tanks have also been targeted, meaning that Rantisi hospital does not have a single drop of running water,” he said.
The attacks on the hospital forced Rabaa al Radee to take her sick granddaughter, Sidra, for treatment elsewhere. Sidra suffers from cancer and broke her leg in an accident while fleeing Israeli bombings that hit the school where they were taking refuge.
“We arrived at Kamal Adwan Hospital but they told us to come to Rantisi Hospital,” Rabaa said. “Now the Rantisi tells us to go to Shifa hospital but there are no ambulances or cars on the road.
At least 16 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals are out of service and 51 of the besieged enclave’s 72 primary health care clinics have completely closed their doors.
The psychiatric hospital, the only one of its kind in the Gaza Strip, is also no longer able to treat its patients.
“We receive 50 to 70 patients a day, from those who come to collect their medicines to those who come to seek treatment for psychological trauma due to the noise of the incessant bombings,” said Jamil Suleiman, general director of the psychiatric hospital. .
“Body injuries can heal, but psychological injuries are much deeper and require psychiatric treatment,” he said.
If Gaza’s hospitals continue to be attacked, there is no need to resort to the United Nations Security Council or the World Health Organization, Suleiman added.
“If there are no guarantees for patients’ rights, then there is no point in an international health body simply watching the massacre of a population,” he said.
“Maybe if we were animals we would have our rights.”