Israel’s military and guerillas are fighting in Gaza: The humanitarian situation in the country’s largest hospital, Al Rantisi, and the Al Shifa Complex
Israel’s military pressed on with the campaign to force the evacuate of hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip, in order to pursue Hamas guerillas who have taken cover there.
The hospitals need to be shut down because of the situation with Hamas, said the military spokesman. We want to deal with Hamas who have turned hospitals into fortified positions.
International outcry continues to grow over conditions at Gaza’s biggest hospital around which Israel’s military says it’s been battling Hamas fighters.
Israel’s military said it surrounded Al Rantisi and told everyone to leave, including staff, patients and civilians sheltering on the hospital grounds. The military said that Hamas fighters tried to prevent civilians from leaving. But eventually many civilians left, the military said — many by foot, some by ambulance. The military said they killed a terrorist who held about 1,000 people.
The World Health Organization Director-General said the medical system in Gaza is on its knees due to the forced evacuates and bombardments from Israel.
The WHO’s director-general said on Friday that the organization had documented five attacks on hospitals in a single day in Gaza. Half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals and two-thirds of the territory’s primary health care centers are no longer functioning, he added.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said with the intensified Israeli bombardments around hospitals as of Friday, several facilities were directly hit.
The Al-Quds Hospital is no longer operational because of the lack of fuel and power, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said on social media. The PRCS, which runs Al-Quds Hospital, said hundreds of patients were trapped and 14,000 people were sheltering there.
Several videos shared online by witnesses showed people injured in a courtyard that is part of the Al Shifa Complex, which has also served as a shelter for the displaced and injured since the Israeli incursion began.
“The destruction affecting hospitals in Gaza is becoming unbearable and needs to stop. The lives of thousands of civilians, patients and medical staff are at risk,” said William Schomburg, head of International Committee of the Red Cross’ sub-delegation in Gaza.
The director of Al Shifa Medical Complex, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, said Friday that the situation facing hospitals “is tragic in every sense of the word.”
By Israel’s account, the name of the hospital has become shorthand for Hamas’ willingness to turn its people into human shields and sacrifice them for global sympathy.
The militants, Israeli security officials say, have spent the better part of 16 years building a vast command complex under the hospital, and setting up similar bases underneath other medical facilities in the enclave. American officials agree, citing their own intelligence.
While it is impossible to independently verify many of the assertions of either side, the competing claims are likely to be tested soon. The hospital, Israeli officials said, was spared in past Israeli operations out of concern for civilian life, but at the cost of leaving whatever may be underneath it intact.
This mistake will not be repeated by Israel, the officials said. They say that Al Shifa is one of the most important Israeli targets in the war and will not be left untouched despite the growing international outcry to spare it.
Dozens of babies are at risk because their incubators shut down because there is no fuel to power generators, according to a voice memo released by Doctors Without Borders.
“We had two neonatal patients die actually because the incubator is not working because there is no electricity,” Obeid said. “So the situation is very, very bad. We need help.”
Israel’s Airstrikes in the Gaza Strip aren’t Taking Over Israel, but Do They Contain Hamas
Fuel has not been allowed into Gaza by Israel for more than a month. Israeli officials have confirmed that the military continues to clash with Hamas militants in the vicinity of hospitals in the the Gaza Strip, but said Al-Shifa is not under siege.
Those who do manage to evacuate still face Israeli airstrikes in southern Gaza, where the United Nations says its shelters have only one shower for 700 people.
The US tried to discourage Israel from taking over Gaza. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the U.S. envisions a Palestinian government in both Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a step toward Palestinian statehood, which Netanyahu staunchly opposes.
More than 11,000 people have died in Israeli military operations in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. About 1200 people were killed in a Hamas attack on Israel.