‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 37: Al-Shifa Hospital No Longer Functioning as Israeli Ground Troops Surround the Hospital

PALESTINE - ISRAEL, 13 Nov 2023

Mustafa Abu Sneineh | Mondoweiss Palestine Bureau – TRANSCEND Media Service

12 Nov 2023 – Thousands of lives are at risk as Al-Shifa Hospital becomes non-operational, with ICUs and incubators shutting down due to lack of fuel, and medical staff and patients trapped waiting to die. Israeli forces continue to shell hospitals in north Gaza.

Israeli troops conducting ground operations in the northern Gaza Strip, November 10, 2023. (Photo: © Chen Junqing/Xinhua via ZUMA Press/APA Images)

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson Mai al-Kaila released a statement on Sunday detailing the desperate conditions at the Al-Shifa hospital.

“The Israeli occupation army does not evacuate hospitals, but rather throws the wounded and sick into the street to certain death,” al-Khaila said, referring to reports and eyewitness testimony that Israeli forces were shooting at people inside the hospitals, as well as those attempting to evacuate.

“This is not an evacuation, but an expulsion at gunpoint,” she said.

Among the patients dying or facing imminent death, al-Kaila said, are children and adults on kidney dialysis who “die in their homes without receiving dialysis sessions.”

Al-Kaila confirmed the death of 12 patients inside the Al-Shifa Medical Complex so far. She added that all 3,000 cancer patients who were being treated at the Al-Rantisi and Al-Turki Hospital in Gaza “have now been left to die” after they were forcibly expelled from the hospitals due to Israeli bombardment.

“All pregnant women and those with dangerous pregnancies are at risk, as women do not find anyone to provide them with treatment and medical services in Gaza. Every woman about to give birth will not find anyone to provide her with any medical service,” Al-Kaila went on to say.

Early on in Israel’s bombardment, medical officials reported that there were an estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, including around 5,000 expecting mothers due to deliver at any moment. Over the weeks, several reports have emerged of pregnant women among those killed by Israeli airstrikes, causing doctors to have to cut out their unborn fetuses in an attempt to save the babies.

In addition to sick patients in the hospital who can’t be treated, as well as chronically ill patients being left to die, hundreds of Palestinians who are becoming wounded and sick as a result of Israeli bombardment cannot reach the hospital itself. Over the past month of Israeli bombardment, Gaza’s infrastructure, including roads around hospitals, have been decimated, making it nearly impossible for ambulances to move to and from the hospital to reach bombed-out buildings and the wounded.

Additionally, medical staff inside the hospital cannot physically move inside the hospital, as Israeli drones and ground forces “fire at everyone who moves inside the complex.” Doctors and staff, as well as the sick and displaced, have little to no food, while water has been completely cut off in the complex.

Medical waste is piling up inside the departments, while the hospital’s blood reserves have spoiled due to power outages, meaning that needy patients can no longer receive life-saving blood transfusions.

Outside the hospital, bodies of Palestinian martyrs are piling up, with medical teams unable to reach them safely without coming under Israeli fire.

According to al-Kail, the bodies have begun to decompose in the hospital courtyard. She added that stray dogs have “mauled” some of the bodies.

Wafa news agency’s correspondent reported Sunday that dozens of martyrs’ bodies were still lying in the hospital’s courtyard and the surrounding area. Paramedics could not reach them due to the intensity of Israeli fire, and since 9 p.m. local time on Saturday, up until 9 a.m. on Sunday, no ambulances were seen leaving or arriving at Al-Shifa Hospital.

Patients, medical staff unable to evacuate al-Shifa 

Al-Shifa Hospital saw a mass exodus of Palestinians over the weekend, including patients, their families, some medical staff, and thousands of Palestinians who were seeking shelter at the hospital.

It remained unclear exactly how many people, including patients, medical staff, and internally displaced persons, remained inside the hospital, but several reports put that number around several thousand.

Mondoweiss’ Gaza Correspondent Tareq Hajjaj, who is currently in Khan Yunis, reported that the majority of the tens of thousands of people who were inside Al-Shifa hospital fled over the weekend. Those who have remained have found it an impossible task to leave due to constant Israeli shelling in the area.

On Sunday morning, Israel targeted the water wells of Al-Shifa and shot at 40 people when they tried to flee the premises, Al-Jazeera reported.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement saying it was left in the dark about the conditions of Al-Shifa after losing communications with contacts inside the medical facility.

“As horrifying reports of the hospital facing repeated attacks continue to emerge, we assume our contacts joined tens of thousands of displaced people and are fleeing the area,” WHO said.

“There are reports that some people who fled the hospital have been shot at, wounded and even killed,” it added.

Gaza ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra told Al Jazeera on Sunday that it was “absolutely impossible to evacuate those wounded.”

Al-Qudra said the only safe way to evacuate the 650 patients at al-Shifa would be to Egypt, not to southern Gaza, as the hospitals there are overwhelmed and are also under imminent threat of shutting down due to fuel shortages.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, among the patients still at Al-Shifa are nearly 60 patients in ICUs, dozens of premature babies in incubators, and more than 500 patients in the dialysis department.

Calling for an immediate ceasefire, the WHO said: “Patients seeking health care should never be exposed to fear, and health workers who have taken an oath to treat them should never be forced to risk their own lives to provide care.”

Over the past month, Israel has bombed the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital several times, killing and injuring hundreds of people and damaging the solar panels on the roof, which added to the brunt of operating the facility amid a lack of fuel to generate electricity.

In recent days, Israeli forces encircled Al-Shifa from southwest of Gaza City, turning it into a “combat zone.” Al-Jazeera reported that Israeli forces are located approximately 700 meters from the hospital’s gates. The medical staff could hear Israeli military vehicles and armed clashes in the distance.

Al-Shifa became the heartbeat of rescue and paramedic efforts during the Israeli war on Gaza, a refuge for thousands of Palestinians, and a platform for health and government officials to update the media about casualty figures and the latest developments in the Gaza Strip.

Israel is attempting to capture Al-Shifa after nearly destroying all major government offices, in addition to some press offices, in the first days of the war. It claims that Hamas’s main command center lies underneath it, which Palestinians deny and which Israel has yet to provide concrete evidence of.

Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City stopped working completely

On Sunday morning, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced that Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City stopped working completely after running out of fuel to generate electricity.

Israeli tanks and ground troops were 20 meters away from Al-Quds Hospital on Saturday, one of the many medical facilities in Gaza that had been threatened by Israeli forces several times since October 7.

PRCS said earlier that infants at Al-Quds Hospital “are facing dehydration due to a shortage of breast milk alternatives.” There are 14,000 displaced people sheltering in Al-Quds Hospital, which is treating almost 500 patients, according to Wafa.

Israeli forces are surrounding the medical quarter in the center of Gaza City, where three major hospitals are located, including Al-Nasr Medical Complex, Al-Rantisi, and St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital.

At least 198 medical staff and 36 Civil Defense staff have been killed and 130 injured since Israel began its war on the Gaza Strip. Nearly 60 ambulances have also been damaged, while 53 have gone completely out of service.

Israeli forces shell UN agency headquarters as thousands of Palestinians take shelter

On Sunday morning, Israeli forces shelled the compound of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip.

UNDP said that it was “deeply distressed” upon hearing the development. It vacated its staff from the location on 13 October.

“The shelling has reportedly resulted in a significant number of deaths and injuries,” the UNDP said in a statement. Wafa reported that at least five were killed till Sunday afternoon.

An eyewitness told Al-Jazeera Arabic on Sunday that people are in panic and terrified after they thought they were sheltering in a safe ground protected by the UN.

On November 6, thousands of people rushed into the UNDP’s compound to seek shelter following Israel’s ground invasion north of the Gaza Valley areas on October 28.

“The ongoing tragedy of death and injury to civilians ensnared in this conflict is unacceptable and must stop. Civilians, civilian infrastructure, and the inviolability of UN facilities, must be respected and protected at all times,” the statement added.

In the past 24 hours, Israel warplanes and tanks bombed neighborhoods of Sheikh Radwan, Tal Al-Hawa, Al-Karama Towers, Al-Maqousi, Sheikh Ejleen, Al-Rimal, and Al-Nasr of Gaza City.

At least eight people were killed and 20 injured on Sunday morning in a bombing of the Al-Najar family house in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.

Wafa reported that the Hamdan family’s house in the Al-Sabra neighborhood was hit by a missile strike on Sunday morning.

In Deir al-Balah, three people were killed and dozens injured when the house of Abdullah al-Adini was bombed.

Israel says 43 soldiers killed, Hamas releases footage targeting tanks in Gaza

The Israeli army announced on Saturday the death of five soldiers, raising the number of its casualties to 43 since it launched the ground invasion of Gaza on October 28.

The army said in a statement that the deceased soldiers were from an “elite reserve force.” Ynet reported that four were killed in Beit Hanoun by an explosion at an entrance to a booby-trapped tunnel.

Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza City, is one of the areas that is seeing intense clashes between Israeli forces and resistance fighters. The triangle of Al-Twam, Al-Karameh Towers, and Al-Mukhabarat Towers, north of Gaza City, are also battlegrounds.

On Saturday, Hamas’s Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson said that fighters documented the destruction, completely or partially, of 160 Israeli military vehicles, which includes tanks, bulldozers, and personnel carriers.

The Israeli army said that it killed 150 Hamas fighters last week during battles in the Al-Shati refugee camp northwest of Gaza City and claimed that it captured a station of Hamas’s Badr unit.

Since October 28, Israeli and foreign journalists embedded in the Israeli forces have had to submit video footage to the army to be checked and censored before being used.

On Sunday, Qassam Brigades announced that it destroyed two tanks south of Gaza City with 105mm Al-Yaseen shells.

Hamas released a compilation of videos in the past few days, showing fighters firing shells at Israeli military tanks stationed amid the rubble and destruction in Gaza.

On Sunday, the Israeli army radio said that a shell was fired from Lebanon into the Galilee, and Israeli warplanes bombed “terrorist infrastructure” in Syria following a shelling into the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday.

Thousands protest worldwide while Israel carries on arrest campaign in occupied West Bank

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Europe’s major cities and in the U.S., calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and showing their support and solidarity with the Palestinians.

Pro-Palestine protests rallied near U.S. President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, as frustration grew at his administration’s failure to call for a ceasefire and the unwavering support of Israel.

Protestors shouted: “Biden, Biden, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!”

In London, at least 300,000 protestors marched from Hyde Park to the U.S. embassy near Vauxhall Bridge, though reports from organizers estimated the crowds reached up to 800,000 people, saying it was one of the largest marches in British history. The UK government had attempted to pressure the Metropolitan Police to cancel the protest as it coincided with Armistice Day, or Veterans Day as it is known in the U.S.

However, the Met Police gave a green light for the march as its route was away from the Cenotaph, where the occasion of Armistice Day is commemorated. The two-minute silence was followed by clashes between Met police and far-right activists who attempted to break into the excluded zone to reach and confront the pro-Palestine march.

“This group were largely football hooligans from across the UK and spent most of the day attacking or threatening officers who were seeking to prevent them being able to confront the main march,” the Met Police said in a statement.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, tweeted on Saturday that “the relentless bombardment of hospitals and civilians in Gaza is intolerable. It’s against international humanitarian law – it must stop and stop now.”

Other protests took place in Paris, Rotterdam, Cape Town, Paris, and Brussels, among other cities.

Arrests continue in the West Bank

In the occupied West Bank, Israel has continued its mass arrest campaign.

On Sunday, at least 25 people were arrested from towns and cities in the Tulkarm, Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron, and Jerusalem districts. Wafa published a list of the names of the detainees in the past 24 hours.

Montaser Muhammad Amin Saif, 34, succumbed to his wounds on Sunday morning after he was shot and then arrested during an Israeli raid of Burqa village, north of Nablus. His house was vandalized by soldiers, Wafa said.

The Commission for the Affairs of Ex-Prisoners said that Saif’s killing was an “execution crime.”

“The act of assassinating and executing the freed prisoner Saif is part persecuting freed prisoners, attacking them and their families, and part of a policy of systematic abuse against them, targeting their stability, whether by arrest or killing,” the commission said.

Wafa reported that Israeli forces raided several houses in Burqa and blew up the car of Mahmoud Hajjah, a resident of the village, after arresting him. Shadi Abu Omar, a leader in the Fatah movement, and Omar Shabib were also arrested and their houses raided.

Since October 7, Israel has arrested 2,470 Palestinians in the West Bank and killed 184 people.

The occupied West Bank has also remained under near complete lockdown since the start of the Israeli military operation, with Palestinian towns and villages cut off from each other by Israeli checkpoints and barriers.

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Mustafa Abu Sneineh is a journalist and writer from occupied Jerusalem, Palestine.

The Mondoweiss Palestine Bureau are the Mondoweiss staff members based in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

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