[News] ‘Patients are dying’: What we know about Gaza hospitals under Israeli siege

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 ‘Patients are dying’: What we know about Gaza hospitals under Israeli siege

*All the hospitals in northern Gaza forced to shut down as Israeli forces
continue to attack medical facilities.*
[image: Palestinians wounded in Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip are
brought to a hospital in Khan Younis, Sunday.]
Palestinians wounded in Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip are brought
to a hospital in Khan Younis [Fatima Shbair/AP Photo]
Published On 13 Nov 2023
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/13/patients-are-dying-what-we-know-about-gaza-hospitals-under-israeli-siege
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Newborn babies wrapped in blankets and lined up on a bed after being
removed from incubators have become the defining image showing the Israeli
siege of hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

At least 32 patients, including six premature babies, have died at the
al-Shifa Hospital in the last three days, Palestinian Health Ministry
spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said Monday, as Gaza’s largest medical
facility was forced to shut down due to lack of fuel and medicine.

More than 100 bodies are decomposing inside the hospital, waiting to be
buried.

“Regrettably, the hospital is not functioning as a hospital anymore. The
world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are
transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair,” said Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization
(WHO).

Israel imposed a total siege of the territory – home to 2.3 million people
– banning fuel, food, electricity and water after launching its military
offensive on October 7. Israeli action came in the wake of 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 air strikes have killed more than 11,000 people, most of them women
and children, triggering 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 inside the al-Shifa Hospital premises surrounded by Israeli forces.

The Israeli military is calling on people to leave the hospital.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Khan Younis, said the “Israeli
military is calling on patients to step out of the hospital with their
hands above their heads.”

“But some of them need wheelchairs while others are disabled, hence cannot
walk,” he said. “It’s hard to comprehend these are the demands of the
Israeli military, while at the same time [it is] playing nice with the
media, telling journalists ‘we are offering a safe corridor.'”

On Sunday, the hospital’s cardiac wing was bombed by Israel.

“Patients are dying by the minute – even babies in the incubators,”
al-Shifa Hospital Director Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera on November
11.

Staff have been forced to line up premature babies on ordinary beds, using
the little power available to run the air conditioning to keep them warm.
“We are expecting to lose more of them 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 three nurses were killed at the hospital on Friday.

Israel’s military said on Sunday that it offered to evacuate newborn babies
and had placed 300 litres (80 gallons) of fuel at the entrance of the
hospital, releasing video of its soldiers carrying containers and putting
them on the ground. It said that Hamas had blocked its efforts.

Hamas denied that it refused the fuel and said the hospital was under the
authority of Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Why has Israel been attacking hospitals?

Hospitals in Gaza have repeatedly come under fire as Israeli forces have
accused Hamas fighters of using them for military purposes.

The al-Ahli Arab Hospital, located in Gaza City, was hit by an explosion
last month
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/18/where-in-gaza-is-al-ahli-arab-hospital-the-site-hit-amid-war-with-israel>.
Nearly 500 people were killed in the attack, whose origin remains unclear
until now. Palestinian officials said an Israeli missile was responsible,
while Israel claimed the explosion was caused by the misfiring of rockets
by Palestinian armed groups.

Israel claims Hamas operates a command centre from under al-Shifa hospital.
But Hamas and hospital officials have denied that assertion.

Independent doctors including British-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu-Sitta,
who is at al-Shifa, and Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert, who has worked at
the hospital previously, have said that they have not seen any evidence of
military activity at the hospital during the war.

Palestinian officials and people inside the hospital have reported Israeli
forces directly targeting the medical complex with munitions and snipers.

Health Ministry Undersecretary Munir al-Boursh said snipers were firing at
any movement inside the compound.

At least 21 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals have stopped functioning, either because
of Israel’s siege on them, or because of a lack of fuel and medicines as a
consequence of the total blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza since October 7.
What happened at al-Quds Hospital?

Fighting has been ongoing near al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, according to
the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) as attempts were under way to
evacuate patients from the second-largest hospital in the enclave.

Al-Quds has been struggling to care for patients, with access to limited
medicine, food and water. It closed its doors
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/12/gazas-al-quds-hospital-ceases-operations-amid-israeli-attacks>
to new patients on Sunday.

“The hospital has been left to fend for itself under ongoing Israeli
bombardment, posing severe risks to the medical staff, patients and
displaced civilians,” the PRCS said in a statement on Sunday.

PRCS, which has been running the al-Quds Hospital since 2001, said it held
the international community and signatories of the Fourth Geneva Convention
accountable for the complete breakdown of Gaza’s healthcare system and the
resulting dire humanitarian crisis.
What about other hospitals in northern Gaza?

They have now all stopped functioning. The al-Nasr Children’s Hospital and
al-Rantisi Specialised Hospital for Children can no longer function without
access to medical aid. They are also under Israeli fire.

Mustafa al-Kahlout, head of both 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 the al-Rantisi Hospital to hospitals in neighbouring Egypt
and Jordan, according to the UN. It remains unclear what has happened to
the 30 children who remain at al-Nasr Hospital.

Another children’s hospital, the 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
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/12/indonesian-staff-at-gaza-hospital-resigned-to-fate-as-israelis-close-in>
located in north Gaza’s Beit Lahiya neighbourhood has also come under
attack. Its director, Atef al-Kahlot, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that the
110-bed hospital is only operating at 30-40 percent of its capacity. He
appealed to the international community for help.

“We call on the honourable people of the world, if any of them are left, to
put pressure on the occupation forces to supply the Indonesian Hospital and
the rest of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip,” he said.

Meanwhile, the al-Awda Hospital has run out of fuel and the
Turkish-Palestine Friendship Hospital, run by the Islamic University of
Gaza, stopped operating on October 30 after air strikes and as it ran out
of fuel and medicines. Israel has denied attacking the hospital, Gaza’s
only cancer treatment facility.

Further air strikes reportedly hit and destroyed the Swedish clinic in al
Shati camp, west of Gaza City, where some 500 internally displaced people
were sheltering. The casualty toll remains unclear. Another strike
overnight hit al-Mahdi Hospital in Gaza City, reportedly killing two
doctors and injuring others.
Where can the sick and injured go?

The remaining hospitals in southern Gaza are at full capacity, and the
Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which can accommodate 350 inpatients, is
overfull. It too remains in desperate need of fuel, electricity and medical
supplies like anaesthesia and saline solution to continue functioning.

The status of the PRCS-run al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis and the European
Gaza Hospital in the same area remain unclear.

Two more hospitals in Rafah – Al-Helal Emirati Hospital and the Mohammed
Yousef El-Najar Hospital – are also operating under limited capacity.

Jordan set up a field hospital on November 6 and claims to have treated 817
patients, while the United Arab Emirates and Turkey are planning to set up
similar hospitals close to the Rafah border with Egypt.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
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