2023-11-13 01:56:52
Thousands of Palestinians, including 36 babies in incubators, are exhausting their chances of survival in the only two hospitals still operating in the northern Gaza Strip, while the Israeli Army lays siege to these medical centers, which are running out of blood. water, electricity and food. The Israeli Army denies targeting hospitals and accuses Hamas, classified as a “terrorist organization” by Israel, the United States and the European Union (EU), of using them as command centers or hideouts, something that the Islamist group rejects.
“All hospitals in Gaza City and the north of the Strip are out of service, except Al Shifa and Indonesian,” said Dr. Mohamed Zaqout, general director of hospitals in the Palestinian enclave, at a press conference. According to Zaqout, the Al Shifa Intensive Care Unit, the most important medical center in the Strip, as well as the surroundings of the Indonesian Hospital, located in Bait Lahia, very close to the northern border of the enclave, are under Israeli fire.
In Al Shifa alone there are about 2,500 people, including medical personnel, patients (including about 650 injured and 36 babies in incubators) and refugees, explained Zaqout, who fears for the lives of patients who need to be connected to machines, such as those suffering from cancer or those suffering from heart or kidney conditions. “What is happening in Gaza’s hospitals is a catastrophe: 12 patients died in Al Shifa hospital due to lack of electricity and medical products, including two newborns,” denounced the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
No food or blood
A total of 23 of the 35 hospitals throughout the Strip have completely collapsed, while doctors must perform operations without anesthesia. In Al Shifa “the wounded, sick and medical personnel have nothing to eat”, while Israeli forces “bomb water wells and oxygen stations, and blood reserves can no longer be used due to the power outage” that prevented its cooling, explained the ANP ministry.
Richard Hecht, spokesman for the Israeli Army, said this Sunday that, “aware of the hospital’s power situation” and the condition of the 36 babies in the incubators, the troops brought 300 liters of fuel to the gates of Al Shifa. “If they take the fuel, they can give them the time and energy they need. Sadly so far they haven’t taken the fuel. It could be Hamas preventing them from doing that, that’s what we assume is happening,” Hecht said.
On the brink of collapse, the Al Shifa hospital is seeking to dig a mass grave to bury some 100 bodies that it cannot keep in cold storage, but cannot do so due to the siege and Israeli attacks. “There is no safe place in Al Shifa and its surroundings, and access to the bodies of the martyrs is impossible,” Zaqout confirmed, underlining that “the accumulation of garbage and medical waste, lack of water and power outages threaten everyone’s life.”
Israel’s air, ground and naval forces have kept the Gaza Strip under fire since October 7, when the war against Hamas broke out after a massive attack by the Islamic group in southern Israel that left some 1,200 dead and 240 kidnapped. . Since then, the impoverished Palestinian enclave has accumulated more than 11,100 dead, 28,200 injured, 3,000 missing and more than 1.5 million displaced people living in overcrowded conditions.
“Everything possible” to free hostages
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said this Sunday that his country is working around the clock and doing “everything possible” to free the more than 200 hostages still in the hands of Hamas. In an interview he offered this Sunday to the CNN channel, Netanyahu stated that the release of the hostages is one of Israel’s two war objectives, while the other is “to destroy Hamas.”
During another interview offered to the American network NBC, the Israeli prime minister hinted that at this time there would be “a potential agreement” regarding the release of those kidnapped since the attacks on October 7. “There could be, but I think the less I say about it, the more I will increase the chances of it materializing,” said Netanyahu, who specified that they even have some information about the location of the kidnapped people.
“There is an offer available. We will talk about it when it is there and we will announce it if it is obtained,” said the prime minister, who highlighted the pressure exerted by the Israeli military forces on the Hamas leaders to release the hostages. “We want all civilians to be out of danger,” he told CNN journalist Dana Bash, but lamented that Hamas is “doing everything in its power to keep them in danger.”
In parallel, Egypt and Qatar are mediating with Israel and Hamas for the release of some 80 hostages, all Israeli civilians, in exchange for a temporary ceasefire and the commitment of the Jewish State to stop attacking health centers. According to an Egyptian informant who requested anonymity, “the process of releasing the prisoners is expected to take place in the next few hours” and defined it as “a beginning on which we can build to reach a ceasefire and reestablish both parties, the Israeli and the Palestinian, to the negotiating table.
Two Palestinian sources in Cairo added that the Islamist group pledged to release “Israeli children and elderly people”, some of them with dual nationality, while Hamas also demands the release of Palestinian minors and women in Israeli prisons and the entry of fuel to the Gaza Strip. According to these same sources, rounds of talks are still underway in traveling venues, both in Doha, the Qatari capital, and in Egypt, with the participation of the United States with the aim of reaching a definitive agreement between both parties as soon as possible. .
Endless violence
Since its inception, the conflict has threatened to spread throughout the Middle East, where pro-Iranian militias operate and have recently been attacking Israeli territory from Lebanon, Yemen and Syria and US military bases in Syria and Iraq. This Sunday, Israeli warplanes attacked “terrorist infrastructure” in Syria after firing from that territory towards the Syrian Golan region, annexed by Israel, the Israeli Army reported.
In the north of Israel, on the border with Lebanon, there are also daily exchanges of fire with the Islamist movement Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and Hamas. On Sunday, several civilians were wounded in the northern Israeli border town of Dovev by an anti-tank missile launched by Hezbollah, which it said was aimed at a military target. The Israeli military later said it responded with artillery strikes in southern Lebanon.
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