1 of 5 | Injured Palestinian child are brought to a hospital following an Israeli strike on the houses of Qeshta family, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on Monday amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian in Gaza, Thousands of civilians, both Palestinians, have died since October 7 with the health ministry Palestinian territory saying 9,770 people have been killed, about two-thirds of them women and children. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI. |
License PhotoNov. 12 (UPI) — Two of Gaza‘s top hospitals are facing a “catastrophic situation” with power outages and medication, food and water shortages as Israeli ground battles and air strikes continued Sunday.
The World Health Organization said it lost communication with the Gaza’s biggest medical center, Al-Shifa Hospital, in northern Gaza. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Gaza City’s Al-Quds Hospital is “out of service and no longer operational” because of “the depletion of available fuel and power outage.”
Doctors Without Borders released a voice memo from Dr. Mohammed Obeid from Al-Shifa Hospital saying a sniper attacked four patients inside the hospital while two babies and an adult died because there was no electricity to run medical equipment.
“The problem is [we need] to be sure that we can evacuate the neonatal patients because we have about 37 to 40 premature babies,” he said. “We have about 17 other patients in the ICU, and we have about 600 postoperative patients who need medical care. So the situation is very bad. We need help. No one hears us.”
The Israeli military said troops will help evacuate the babies out of Al-Shifa on Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continually said he will not consider a cease-fire unless the hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 are released. The international calls for a cease-fire have been growing as the body count grows in Gaza. Israel Defense Forces claim Hamas uses hospitals as bases of operation and to hide weapons, although Hamas denies the accusations and other officials refute such claims.
WHO said the last they heard, Al-Shifa was surrounded by tanks. The hospital has been has been attacked several times.
“WHO calls again for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as the only way to save lives and reduce the horrific levels of suffering. Hospitals, patients, health staff, and persons sheltering in health facilities are protected under the Geneva Conventions and International Humanitarian Law,” the organization said.
Robert Mardini, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the situation has become unbearably desperate for patients and staff trapped inside the hospitals.
“Hospitals, patients, staff & health care must be protected. Period,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.
