The Gaza Strip: “On its knees” and “without fortifications”, says an Israeli military spokesman in the wake of Israel’s incursion
TEL AVIV, Israel —Israel’s military pressed ahead Saturday with a campaign to force the evacuation of hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip so it can pursue Hamas militants it believes are taking cover there.
The hospitals need to be evacuated in order to deal with Hamas, according to an Israeli military spokesman. “We intend on dealing with Hamas who have turned hospitals into fortified positions.”
Overtaxed medical system in besieged area has been stressed by increased pressure from Israeli military on Gaza’s hospitals to evacuate
The military of Israel said that it surrounded Al Rantisi, told everyone to leave and hid people on the hospital grounds. The military said Hamas fighters were also present and tried to prevent civilians from leaving. But eventually many civilians left, the military said — many by foot, some by ambulance. The military said that it killed a person who held about 1,000 people hostage.
With the forced evacuations and ongoing military bombardments from Israel, Gaza’s medical system is “on its knees,” said World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO had documented five attacks on hospitals in the Gaza area in the previous week, according to the director general. Half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals and two-thirds of the territory’s primary health care centers are no longer functioning, he added.
Health officials in the Gaza strip say that the Al Shifa Medical Complex has been hit five times in the last few days.
The Red Crescent society stated on social media that Gaza City’s Al Quds Hospital is out of service due to the lack of fuel and power. 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 show people who have been injured in a courtyard that has served as a refuge for the displaced and injured since the Israeli incursion began.
Robert Mardini, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said on social media that the “unbearably desperate” situation at Al-Shifa Hospital must stop. The UN’s humanitarian chief said there can’t be any justification for war in health care facilities.
The director of Al Shifa Medical Complex said Friday that the situation facing hospitals is tragic.
Doctors Without Borders released a voice memo from Dr. Mohammed Obeid from inside Al-Shifa Hospital saying the lives of dozens of babies are in peril after their incubators shut down because fuel to power generators ran out.
“We had two neonatal patients die actually because the incubator is not working because there is no electricity,” Obeid said. The situation is very, very bad. We need help.
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Israel has not allowed any fuel to enter Gaza for more than a month. The military has clashed with Hamas in the vicinity of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, but it is not under siege, according to Israeli officials.
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.
Washington has tried to discourage Israel from reoccupying 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.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reports more than 11,000 people in Gaza have been killed in Israeli military operations since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel that claimed more than 1200 lives.