Calls for a ceasefire as hospitals to are forced to close due to medication, fuel, water and food being inaccessible as a result of Israel’s continued assaults and blockades. Image source: أمين via Wikimedia
Two additional major hospitals in Palestine have closed new patient admissions on Sunday (local time), with staff citing a lack of fuel and medicine and Israel’s continued bombardments in the region.
Hospitals is northern Palestine have been blockaded by the Israeli military, as Israel states that it is homing in on Hamas militants in the area.
Israel launched its military assault on Palestine in response to the October 7th attack by Hamas, with approximately 1,200 Israelis killed and 240 kidnapped.
More than 11,000 Palestinians have been reported killed as a result of Israel’s assault.
Israel says that the hospitals in the area should evacuate, however medical staff and humanitarian organisations have said it would be impossible for all patients to be evacuated.
Half of the hospitals in Gaza have ceased operations — including the two largest hospitals in Al Shifa and Al-Quds — as civilian casualties continue to mount as Israel bombards and pushes through Gaza.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has managed to restore communication with staff at Shifa, with the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saying that the situation is “dire and perilous” with the already critical situation further declining due to the constant gunfire and bombing.
Via X (formally twitter), he also confirmed that “the number of patient fatalities has increased significantly.”
.@WHO has managed to get in touch with health professionals at the Al-Shifa hospital in #Gaza.
The situation is dire and perilous.
It’s been 3 days without electricity, without water and with very poor internet which has severely impacted our ability to provide essential…
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 12, 2023
The Israeli military has said it had offered to evacuate newborn babies and provide 300 litres of diesel to Shifa hospital, but Hamas had blocked both gestures.
The director of Shifa, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, said the reported refusal to leave fuel were “lies and slander”. A spokesperson for the Palestinian Health Ministry said that so far, three of the 45 babies in incubators have died.
The Palestinian Red Crescent has that Al-Quds hospital was running low of medicine, food and water, and was also out of service.
“Al Quds hospital has been cut off from the world in the last six to seven days. No way in, no way out,” said a spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
According to three UN agencies, in 36 days there had been at least 137 attacks on healthcare facilities with 521 deaths and 686 injuries as a result.
