Israeli troops are closing in on al-Shifa hospital, where hundreds of doctors, patients and displaced people are trapped.
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed more than a dozen people and destroyed the cardiology ward of the main hospital, Gaza officials say, as fighting continues in the besieged strip for the 37th consecutive day.
At least 13 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Khan Younis, Gaza officials reported Sunday.
The day before, at least “several people” were killed and injured in a strike against a UN compound in Gaza City where hundreds of people had taken refuge, the United Nations Development Program said. development (UNDP).
“The ongoing tragedy of civilian deaths and injuries trapped in this conflict is unacceptable and must end,” UNDP said in a statement.
Al-Shifa hospital surrounded
Strikes continue as Israel intensifies its offensive near Gaza’s main hospital, al-Shifa, where health officials say thousands of doctors, patients and displaced people are stuck without power and supplies. decreasing.
Al-Shifa Hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya said two patients in the intensive care unit died due to lack of electricity and oxygen. He added that the others risked dying if the lack of fuel at the hospital persisted. “If this catastrophic situation continues, all patients in intensive care will die,” he told Arab news channels.
The hospital came under repeated fire as Israeli forces closed in on the facility, which they accuse Hamas fighters of using as cover for a command center – accusations Hamas denies. Israel has not provided evidence for its claims.
Witnesses inside al-Shifa hospital told the AFP news agency that “heavy fighting” raged around the hospital throughout Saturday night.
An airstrike destroyed the hospital’s cardiology department, Gaza officials said, while power outages cut off incubators in the neonatal unit housing around 40 babies and ventilators for those receiving treatment. urgent care.
Doctors Without Borders surgeon Mohammed Obeid said in an audio message posted on social media that two babies died in al-Shifa’s neonatal unit after their incubators were cut off and that a man also died when his fan was cut off.
The Israeli army pledged Saturday to help evacuate the babies from the hospital, noting that “al-Shifa hospital staff requested it tomorrow.”
Al-Shifa, one of 16 hospitals still operating in Gaza, was also out of reach of the newly injured, said Mohammad Qandil, a doctor at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, who is in contact with his colleagues on site. .
“Al-Shifa Hospital is no longer functioning currently, no one is allowed in, no one is allowed out, and if you are injured or injured around the Gaza area, you cannot be evacuated by our ambulance to al-Shifa Hospital, so al-Shifa Hospital is now out of service,” he told Reuters news agency.
Israel has carried out a campaign of devastating bombings and ground incursions into the besieged Gaza Strip since October 7, killing at least 11,000 Palestinians, more than a third of them children, according to Gaza officials. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says at least 100 of its employees have been killed during the war.
The Israeli campaign has also displaced some 1.6 million Palestinians, more than 70 percent of the enclave’s total population, and destroyed much of its infrastructure.
Palestinians forced from their homes now live in dire conditions, often sheltering in overcrowded outdoor camps and in desperate need of food, water and medicine. Aid workers say what little aid has been allowed into the enclave is a “drop in the bucket” compared to what is needed.
Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took some 240 hostages during its surprise attack on October 7, according to Israeli officials.