<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-top-anchor"></div>
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container">
</div><div class="gmail-container" lang="en" dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-gaza-doctors-seized-used-human-shields">middleeasteye.net</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Gaza doctors seized by Israel say they were used as 'human shields'</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Maha Hussaini in Gaza, Palestine</div>
<div class="gmail-meta-data">
<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">December 1, 2023<br></div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p>A
doctor who worked at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza during the Israeli siege
and bombardment of the complex has described how Israeli troops used
them as “hostages” as they invaded the hospital, and later detained the
head of the hospital, along with more than 20 other medical personnel
from Gaza, in what one Palestinian medic called a “war on hospitals”.</p>
<p>Following weeks of intense bombardment of the largest medical complex in the northern Gaza Strip, the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel" target="_blank">Israeli</a>
military approved an evacuation request for the staff and patients to
the southern enclave, submitted in coordination with the World Health
Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations.</p>
<p>When a UN-led convoy of ambulances arrived at a checkpoint set up by
Israeli forces on the road connecting the northern Gaza Strip to
southern areas, they were stopped, searched, and interrogated for seven
hours, before the head of al-Shifa medical complex, Dr Mohammed Abu
Silmiya, was detained along with around five other doctors.</p>
<p>Even before evacuation, Abu Silmia was held in custody and interrogated twice by Israeli officers inside the al-Shifa Hospital.</p>
<p>Marwan Abu Saada, a doctor who was interrogated with him, spoke to
Middle East Eye about the "horrifying hours" when Israeli soldiers held
them and used them as human shields inside the hospital.</p>
<p>"For several days, Israeli aircraft kept bombing different buildings
and departments of the hospital. Quadcopters were shooting directly at
people, including patients and displaced persons. People were killed
inside the hospital," Abu Saada, the head of the surgery department at
al-Shifa Hospital, said.</p>
<p>"They besieged the hospital for five days before they stormed its
departments. They kept us [in certain areas] and threatened us [with
getting targeted].</p>
<p>"When they stormed the ground stores, they used us [doctors] as human
shields to enter and search them. They found the technical maintenance
employees there and interrogated them, before they detained them."</p><p>While moving from one department to another and searching the
different offices and rooms of the hospital, Israeli forces took several
doctors with them.</p>
<p>"We felt that we were hostages, used to [protect] Israeli soldiers.
They took me and Dr Abu Silmiya and interrogated us. They did not use
violence with me or Dr Abu Silmiya. But they interrogated Dr Abu Silmiya
twice," Abu Saada continued.</p>
<p>The doctor said Israeli forces questioned him and Abu Silmiya about
the presence of any Hamas members or hostages in the hospital's offices
or if there was any activity being conducted by Hamas in al-Shifa. </p>
<p>"We said no because we have never seen any Hamas members there. They
besieged us in the hospital for five days, and on the eve of the truce, I
returned home, and patients and some medical staff members were
evacuated to the south," Abu Saada said.</p>
<h3>'He refused to leave the hospital'</h3>
<p>On 22 November, the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine" target="_blank">Palestinian</a>
health ministry said it was informed by the UN that they had
coordinated with the WHO to evacuate the patients from the al-Shifa
Medical Complex and move them to southern areas.</p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-gaza-separated-attacks-truce-reunite-loved-ones" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images-story/000_344V7ZK%20%281%29.jpg.webp?itok=JlML9k9K" width="400" height="250" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img">
</a></p><p>Israel-Palestine war: Separated Palestinians use truce to reunite with loved ones</p>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-gaza-separated-attacks-truce-reunite-loved-ones" target="_blank">Read More »</a>
</p></div>
<p>In a statement released by the ministry on the following day, its
spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, condemned the detention of medical staff
members as they were evacuating the city, and declared a "complete halt
of coordination with the WHO regarding the evacuation of the rest of the
wounded and medical staff until [they] submit a report clarifying what
had happened, and [until] the release of the detainees".</p>
<p>"We were surprised that the convoy was stopped at the occupation
checkpoint that separates the northern Gaza Strip from the south for
seven hours," the statement read.</p>
<p>"The patients, their companions, and the medical staff that
accompanied them were met with excessive force by Israeli occupation
forces. They ended up detaining a number of them, including the head of
the al-Shifa medical complex, Dr Mohammed Abu Silmiya."</p>
<p>According to Qudra, Abu Silmiya had not left the hospital or seen his family since the beginning of <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/israel-palestine-war" target="_blank">the war</a>.</p>
<p>"He refused to leave the hospital until the last patient [was evacuated]," he said in another statement.</p>
<p>On Monday, the Gaza Government Media office said the Israeli
authorities had extended Abu Silimiya's detention for another 45 days
for further interrogation.</p>
<h3>'Doctors directly killed'</h3>
<p>On the day after the detention campaign, Israeli forces bombed the
power generators of the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>For weeks, the hospital has been targeted by aerial and artillery
shells that have devastated large parts of its departments and resulted
in the killing and wounding of hundreds of patients, displaced people,
and healthcare professionals.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>'Many of our colleagues were directly killed. Every day, we hear the name of another doctor who was killed'</p>
<p>-<em> Fadel Naim, dean of faculty of medicine, Islamic University</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Fadel Naim, a doctor who had witnessed the attacks, said Israeli
quadcopters killed patients and displaced people inside the hospital.</p>
<p>"The quadcopters were hovering at low altitudes over the heads of
people inside the [courtyards] of the hospital. There was heavy shooting
on people," the gynaecologist and the dean of the faculty of medicine
at the Islamic University of Gaza told MEE.</p>
<p>"Many doctors and healthcare professionals have been interrogated and detained.</p>
<p>"Every Palestinian is subject to detention, but they detain doctors
in particular thinking that they would get information that might prove
their allegations about the resistance. They interrogate them to get
information and details about other people."</p>
<p>Naim said that since the beginning of the attack, he had witnessed or heard of many doctors getting killed or wounded.</p>
<p>"Many of our colleagues were directly killed. Every day, we hear the
name of another doctor who was killed. Many of the doctors who were once
our students were also killed or detained," he said.</p>
<h3>'This war revealed everything'</h3>
<p>In the al-Awda hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, Adnan Radi,
an obstetrician and gynaecologist, said Israel had "declared a war on
hospitals in the strip".</p>
<p>"I call this the war on hospitals - they wanted to launch this war on
medical staff. But all the allegations of the occupation were proven
false after they <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-shifa-hospital-gaza-besiege-attack" target="_blank">stormed</a> and searched al-Shifa and the Indonesian hospitals," Radi told MEE.</p>
<p>"I swear to God that I have never seen one armed person inside any of the hospitals.</p>
<p>"We were attacked and the hospital was directly bombed. We paid a
high price for insisting on continuing our work despite the persistent
attacks, we lost colleagues, doctors, and patients.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>'I call this the war on hospitals - they wanted to launch this war on medical staff'</p>
<p><em>- Adnan Radi, doctor</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>"The hospital was attacked although we did not have anyone affiliated
with [Palestinian factions] inside, we did not even have displaced
people taking refuge at the hospital like other hospitals, we only had
patients, their companions, and healthcare professionals."</p>
<p>Radi, whose home in the al-Rimal neighbourhood in the centre of Gaza
City was destroyed by the attacks, said that he could not leave the
hospital and evacuate to the southern areas of the strip, even during
the pause in fighting.</p>
<p>Al-Awda Hospital is currently the only place in the northern areas of
the strip providing healthcare services to pregnant women, he
explained.</p>
<p>"We have around 5,000 birth deliveries each month, and women from
across different areas of Gaza City and other northern areas of the
strip suffer in order to reach the hospital. I have been working in the
hospital nonstop for 48 days and the situation is more than bleak," he
said.</p>
<p>"We cannot leave the hospital. There are around 55,000 pregnant women
in Gaza who need constant medical care, and we are the only ones
currently providing these services after all other hospitals stopped
working."</p>
<p>According to Radi, four doctors, two patients, and two patient
companions were killed in a direct Israeli bombardment of the hospital's
departments.</p>
<p>"This is a revealing war. It revealed the falsity of the world's
values, their propaganda talking about human rights and women's rights
and their false speeches about the protection of medical staff and
hospitals," he said.</p>
<p>"This war revealed everything."</p>
<p>At least 26 healthcare professionals from Gaza are currently detained by Israel, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.</p>
</div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>