Palestinian health officials say patients are dying due to power shortages as fighting between Israel and Hamas intensifies.
Tiny babies, drowned in large swaddling clothes, lie in rows on a regular hospital bed covered with aluminum foil. The chests of almost all premature newborns protrude in lines through the skin. The foil is a makeshift solution to keep the babies warm and prevent the babies, who weigh only a few kilograms each and must be kept in incubators, from dying from the cold.
Read about what's happening at Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza in an adaptation of The Independent's material.
Three of the 39 babies at Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, died because the fuel ran out and the incubators shut down, Palestinian doctors said. A total of 32 patients died after Al-Shifa Hospital's emergency generator ran out of fuel on Saturday, November 11, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled health ministry.
Hospital as a cover
The sprawling complex, which Israel accuses Hamas militants of using as cover for an underground network of operational tunnels, is surrounded by Israeli tanks and troops approaching the gates of the facility. The Israeli military says it is fighting Hamas in the area around the hospital, where there is no electricity, water, food, medicine or equipment.
The Ministry of Health says the hospital is being targeted by snipers and drones. A surgeon working at the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Al Shifa recorded a message saying: “There is a sniper who attacked the patients, they have gunshot wounds, we operated on three of them… The situation is very bad, inhumane. This is a closed area, no one knows about us.
Baby warming foil
Dr. Medhat Abbas, director of Al-Shifa Hospital and a senior health ministry official in Gaza, said four premature babies at the hospital were without mothers because they were born by emergency caesarean section while their injured mothers were dying.
Premature infants at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza cry out for assistance, while the Israeli blockade of the hospital persists for the fourth consecutive day, with no access to food, water, electricity, or aid. pic.twitter.com/16LB3XHlma
— PALESTINE ONLINE (@OnlinePalEng) November 14, 2023
“They need the same temperature as their mother to stay alive, and this is only possible with the help of incubators, which keep the babies warm and provide special light to protect them from jaundice, as well as artificial respiration if necessary,” said Dr. . Abbas.
“Now, due to the power shortage, our doctors gathered them in these regular beds and covered them with aluminum foil to keep them warm. It's getting colder in Gaza, so without proper temperature control, some of them could die,” he added.
The hospital is under complete siege
Fighting has been raging in the al-Shifa area for several days as Israel has stepped up ground operations. He launched a military campaign against Hamas after an attack on Israeli territory that killed more than 1,200 people and sent some 240 hostages back to Gaza. The campaign also includes almost continuous bombing of Gaza and a blockade. Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 11,000 people have been killed, including more than 4,600 children.
Dr Ahmed El Mohallalati, a surgeon in Al Shifa caring for the babies, said the hospital was under a “total blockade” and the premature babies, usually kept in individual incubators lined up eight to a bed, were keeping warm using what little energy they had left. .
“Tanks are standing in front of the hospital. We are in complete siege,” he told Reuters during a telephone conversation.
After the deaths of three babies, he added: “We expect more deaths every day.”
Fuel and evacuation
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, November 12, that Israel offered fuel to Al-Shifi, but Hamas militants refused to receive it. The Israeli military said troops had left 300 liters of fuel to power emergency generators at the entrance to the hospital, but again said the offers were blocked by Hamas. Israel's chief military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, later said the Israeli military would help evacuate the babies from the hospital at the request of Al-Shifa's staff.
The Ministry of Health told The Independent that Israeli authorities contacted the director of Al-Shifa Hospital and offered the hospital 300 liters of diesel and asked to send someone to collect it. The hospital director refused the offer, fearing that it would be too dangerous and asked for fuel to be delivered through the Red Cross, which Israel refused.
Israel rejected the suggestion that personnel would be attacked if they took the fuel.
“Please note that the diesel consumption rate at Al Shifa Hospital is 500 liters per hour,” the statement said.
Asked about fuel and evacuation, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said they had not been informed of any mechanism to remove the babies to a safe hospital. “For now, we are praying for their safety and that we don’t lose more children,” he added.
“Death Trap”
Palestinian doctors told The Independent that the estimated 650 patients remaining at al-Shifa were trapped in a “circle of death” as military vehicles drove up to the southeast gate of the compound, where the maternity ward is located. Other medics, including those working with international medical charity MSF, said this week that evacuations were impossible as people were shot at as they tried to leave. About 500 employees are said to still be in hospital.
Israel has repeatedly denied targeting the hospital, from which thousands have fled in recent days, and insists Hamas is using it as its main base of operations.
“It's almost a cemetery”
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, also warned that Al Shifa “no longer functions as a hospital.” He said the number of deaths among patients had increased significantly and the “dire and dangerous situation” at the hospital, which was left without electricity and water for three days, was worsened by “constant shootings and bombings in the area.”
WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier later told the BBC: “There are dead bodies lying around the hospital that cannot be taken care of, they cannot even be buried or taken to any morgue… The hospital is no longer functioning as it should. It's almost a cemetery.”
Dr Mohamed Tabasha, head of the pediatric department at Al Shifa Hospital, said he feared he could lose more children in the next few hours. He told Reuters they were forced to move the babies to regular beds over the weekend.
“Never in my life did I expect to have to put 39 babies side by side on a bed, each with their own illness, and in the face of severe shortages of medical personnel and milk,” Dr. Tabasa said.
“I can't say how long they will last. I could lose two more children today or in an hour,” he added.
Dr Abbas told The Independent there were 100 bodies decomposing at Al Shifa which could not be buried because it was too dangerous. “Fifty are in hospital and 60 are in morgues, which are not functioning due to lack of electricity,” Dr Abbas commented.
There was also fighting at a second major hospital in northern Gaza, Al-Quds, which also ceased operations. The Palestinian Red Crescent said the hospital was cordoned off by heavy artillery fire and a convoy sent to evacuate patients and staff was unable to reach it.
Israel said it killed “approximately 21 terrorists” in Al-Quds in return fire after gunmen opened fire from the entrance to a hospital. Israel released video footage allegedly showing a group of men at the hospital gates, one of whom appeared to be carrying a grenade launcher.
The country added to its claims that hospitals are being used by the military by releasing video footage on Monday evening showing weapons being found in the basement of Rantisi Hospital in Gaza, as well as signs of hostages being held.
BREAKING:
The Israeli Army took control of the Rantisi children's hospital in Gaza & found a secret tunnel leading 20 m below ground to a Hamas command & control center.
Weapons, baby bottles & motorcycles in the tunnel indicate hostages were held there pic.twitter.com/ArFWOqfkgl
— Visegrad 24 (@visegrad24) November 13, 2023
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