2023-11-13 00:42:00
Israeli troops were fighting fierce battles against Hamas militants this Sunday near the largest hospital in Gaza, where thousands of civilians are trapped and authorities claimed that the lack of fuel caused the death of premature babies and patients in critical condition.
Gaza City’s Al Shifa hospital is in the middle of the Israeli ground offensive against the Islamist movement. The building has been the target of gunfire and attacks, which Hamas says destroyed the cardiology, surgery and outpatient surgery departments.
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.
The EU also condemned Hamas for using “hospitals and civilians as human shields”, while urging Israel to use “maximum containment” to protect civilians.
Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas after the bloody attack on its territory on October 7, which left some 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, according to authorities.
Some 240 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, according to the same source.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was examining a possible agreement for the release of the hostages held in Gaza.
“The less I express myself on the subject, the more I increase the chances of it materializing,” the leader said in an interview with the NBC television network.
Israel has since bombed the Gaza Strip and according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health of the enclave, governed by Hamas, 11,180 people have already died, mostly civilians and many children.
The Palestinian territory is also under “total siege”, preventing supplies of water, food and fuel from arriving.
The lack of fuel left another hospital in Gaza City, Al Quds, out of service, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
“The hospital has had to fend for itself under continued Israeli bombing, posing serious risks to medical staff, patients and displaced civilians,” the agency denounced.
Regarding the Al Shifa hospital, a Hamas official said that five premature babies and seven critically ill patients died due to a lack of electricity.
Al Shifa “no longer functions as a hospital”
According to the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 20 of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are “out of service” due to lack of supplies.
Witnesses inside Al Shifa hospital told AFP by phone that “violent fighting” took place near the hospital throughout the night.
Doctors Without Borders indicated that two premature babies died because their incubators stopped working due to a lack of electricity.
Doctors at the hospital also reported the death of a man after his mechanical breathing aid stopped working.
Yusef Abu Rish, deputy health minister of the Gaza Strip, said three more premature babies had died, as well as six other patients in critical condition. “We fear that the number of victims will increase in the morning,” he warned.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Al Shifa “no longer functions as a hospital” and its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stressed in X that the lack of electricity, water and Internet “has seriously affected our ability to provide essential care”.
The Israeli army indicated that a “safe passage” would be opened to evacuate civilians from Al Shifa to the south.
Humanitarian aid has barely entered the 362 km2 territory, where 2.4 million people live. Israel says it will maintain the blockade until the hostages are freed.
As fighting continues, some 800 people with foreign passports or dual nationalities were evacuated from Gaza to Egypt on Sunday, according to an Egyptian security official.
The AlQahera News network, close to the Egyptian intelligence services, indicated that “seven wounded Palestinians” also crossed the Rafah crossing, the only one not under Israeli control and which remained closed on Friday and Saturday.
Nearly 1.6 million Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes since the start of the war, according to the UN.
Displaced people fleeing the fighting in the north of the Strip can no longer find places to take refuge and some are forced to sleep on the streets, according to AFP journalists.
A dozen houses were destroyed in another attack in Bani Suheila, leaving at least four dead and 30 injured.
The war triggered worldwide commemorations for dead and kidnapped Israelis, as well as pro-Palestinian marches to denounce the situation in Gaza and call for a ceasefire.
On the other hand, the international community fears that the conflict will spread to other countries in the region.
Israeli aircraft attacked “terrorist infrastructure” in Syria on Sunday after firing from that territory towards the Golan region.
In the north, on the border with Lebanon, there are also daily exchanges of fire with the Islamist movement Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
Several civilians were injured in Israel by an anti-tank missile that fell near the village of Dovev, 800 meters from the border with Lebanon.
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