The situation at al Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza is horrific – no power, no medicine, and no way to escape Israeli bombardment.
excerpts from Al-Jazeera Live coverage:
‘We are minutes away from death’: Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital is under attack. Palestinian health officials say babies in incubators are fighting for their lives as Israel lays siege to the hospital compound. Israel’s military has brought the war to the front gates of al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s biggest hospital complex, where thousands of injured and displaced people are trapped amid ferocious bombardment. Operations had to be suspended after it ran out of power and fuel.
The hospital director said al-Shifa’s buildings are being targeted, and any person moving within the hospital compound is being attacked by Israeli snipers. Israel claims al-Shifa provides cover for a Hamas command centre, an accusation the hospital’s director has rejected as “utter lies”. Hamas also rejects the claims.
Patients are dying by the minute, victims and wounded are also dying – even babies in the incubators…We are totally cut off from the whole world, we are minutes away from imminent death…One member of a medical crew who tried to reach the incubator to lend a helping hand to the babies born inside was shot and killed…We are stranded, we sent many SOS to the whole world – there has been no response, no response.
Speaking from al-Shifa Hospital, the director of the health ministry in Gaza, Monir al-Bashr, says Palestinians are being forced to dig with their hands in order to bury bodies within the hospital compound.
“We do not have any equipment or machinery to dig the grave. We have to bury these bodies otherwise epidemics will break out. These bodies have been lying on the street for days,” he told Al Jazeera.
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