Newborns wrapped in blankets and lined up on a bed after being removed from incubators have become the defining image of Israel’s siege of hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
At least 32 patients, including six premature babies, have died at al-Shifa hospital in the past three days, Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said Monday, as the largest Gaza’s medical facility was forced to close due to lack of fuel. and medicine.
More than 100 bodies are decomposing inside the hospital, waiting to be buried.
“Unfortunately, the hospital no longer functions as a hospital. The world cannot remain silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation and despair,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization ( WHO).
Israel imposed a total siege on the territory – home to 2.3 million people – barring fuel, food, electricity and water after launching its military offensive on October 7. The Israeli action came following a Hamas attack that claimed more than 1,200 lives in Israel. .
All hospitals in northern Gaza are now “out of service” as relentless Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 11,000 people, mostly women and children, sparking global calls for a ceasefire.
What is happening at al-Shifa Hospital?
Thousands of people, including 650 patients and 500 health workers, are holed up in the premises of al-Shifa hospital, surrounded by Israeli forces.
The Israeli army calls on people to leave the hospital.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Khan Younis, said that “the Israeli army is calling on patients to leave the hospital with their hands above their heads.”
“But some of them need wheelchairs while others are disabled and therefore cannot walk,” he said. “It is difficult to understand that these are the demands of the Israeli army, while playing nice with the media, telling journalists ‘we provide a safe corridor.’ »
On Sunday, the cardiac wing of the hospital was bombed by Israel.
“Patients are dying by the minute – even babies in incubators,” al-Shifa Hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera on November 11.
Staff were forced to line up premature babies on regular beds, using what little energy was available to run the air conditioning to keep them warm. “We expect to lose more day by day,” Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati, a doctor working at the hospital, told reporters.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that three nurses were killed at the hospital on Friday.
The Israeli army said on Sunday that it had offered to evacuate the newborns and had placed 300 liters (80 gallons) of fuel at the entrance to the hospital, releasing video of its soldiers carrying containers and placing them on the ground. He said Hamas had blocked his efforts.
Hamas denied refusing the fuel and said the hospital was under the authority of Gaza’s health ministry.
Why is Israel attacking hospitals?
Hospitals in Gaza have come under repeated fire, with Israeli forces accusing Hamas fighters of using them for military purposes.
Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, located in Gaza City, was hit by an explosion last month. Nearly 500 people were killed in this attack, the origin of which remains unclear until now. Palestinian officials said an Israeli missile was responsible, while Israel claimed the explosion was caused by misfiring rocket fire by Palestinian armed groups.
Israel says Hamas operates a command center located under al-Shifa hospital. But Hamas and hospital officials have denied the claim.
Independent doctors, including Anglo-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu-Sitta, who works in al-Shifa, and Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert, who previously worked at the hospital, said they saw no evidence of military activity at the hospital during the war.
Palestinian officials and people inside the hospital reported that Israeli forces directly targeted the medical complex with munitions and snipers.
Health Ministry undersecretary Munir al-Boursh said snipers were shooting at any movement inside the compound.
At least 21 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals have stopped functioning, either because of the Israeli siege or because of a lack of fuel and medicine following the total blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza since October 7.
What happened at al-Quds hospital?
Fighting continues near al-Quds hospital in Gaza City, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), as attempts were underway to evacuate patients from the enclave’s second largest hospital .
Al-Quds struggles to care for its patients, with limited access to medicine, food and water. It closed its doors to new patients on Sunday.
“The hospital has been left to its own devices under continued Israeli bombardment, posing serious risks to medical staff, patients and displaced civilians,” the PRCS said in a statement on Sunday.
The PRCS, which has run al-Quds hospital since 2001, said it held the international community and the signatories of the Fourth Geneva Convention responsible for the complete collapse of Gaza’s health system and the grave crisis humanitarian situation that resulted.
What about other hospitals in northern Gaza?
They have now all stopped working. Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital and al-Rantisi Specialized Children’s Hospital can no longer operate without access to medical assistance. They are also under Israeli fire.
Mustafa al-Kahlout, director of the two hospitals, said: “We are completely surrounded, there are tanks outside the hospital and we cannot leave. »
On Friday, more than a dozen children and their parents or guardians were evacuated from al-Rantisi hospital to hospitals in neighboring Egypt and Jordan, according to the UN. It is still unclear what happened to the 30 children who remained at al-Nasr hospital.
Another children’s hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, also suspended operations on Monday after its main generator ran out of fuel, hospital director Ahmed al-Kahlout told Al Jazeera.
The Indonesian hospital located in the Beit Lahiya neighborhood in northern Gaza was also attacked. Its director, Atef al-Kahlot, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that the 110-bed hospital was operating at only 30 to 40 percent capacity. He appealed for help to the international community.
“We call on the honorable people of the world, if there are any left, to put pressure on the occupying forces to supply the Indonesian hospital and the rest of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip,” he said. declared.
Meanwhile, al-Awda Hospital is running out of fuel and the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, run by the Islamic University of Gaza, stopped functioning on October 30 after airstrikes and lack of fuel and medicines. Israel denied attacking the hospital, Gaza’s only cancer treatment center.
Other airstrikes reportedly hit and destroyed the Swedish clinic in al Shati camp, west of Gaza City, where some 500 displaced people were sheltering. The death toll remains unclear. Another strike hit al-Mahdi hospital in Gaza City overnight, killing two doctors and injuring others.
Where can the sick and injured go?
The remaining hospitals in southern Gaza are operating at full capacity and the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which can accommodate 350 inpatients, is saturated. It, too, desperately needs fuel, electricity and medical supplies like anesthesia and saline to keep functioning.
The status of the PRCS-run al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis and the European Gaza Hospital in the same area remains uncertain.
Two other hospitals in Rafah – Al-Helal Emirati Hospital and Mohammed Yousef El-Najar Hospital – are also operating with limited capacity.
Jordan set up a field hospital on November 6 and says it has treated 817 patients, while the United Arab Emirates and Turkey plan to set up similar hospitals near the Egyptian Rafah border.
