GAZA CITY, Palestine
Hospitals in Gaza are not only braving the relentless Israeli bombardment and treating injured Palestinians in dire circumstances, but they are also preparing to bury hundreds of bodies in mass graves inside their premises.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said a mass grave inside the Al-Shifa Hospital, now out of service, will be dug on Saturday to bury 100 bodies lying in the hospital.
Palestinian Health Ministry Director General Dr. Munir Al-Borsh said Israeli bombing around the hospital has not stopped for three nights, adding that the bombing obstructed the entry or exit of ambulances to and from the hospital. “We are trapped inside the Al-Shifa complex.”
At least two patients died as Al-Shifa Hospital went out of service on Saturday due to Israel bombing everything moving inside the complex, the ministry said, adding 20 out of 35 hospitals stopped working due to Israeli bombing, and lack of fuel.
The Israeli forces also bombed Al-Nasr Hospital on Saturday, destroying its nursery department, and cutting off the water, and power supply.
On Friday night, the Israeli aircraft intensified their attacks against hospitals in the Gaza Strip. They continued their raids in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital, Indonesian Hospital, Al-Awda Hospital, Al-Quds Hospital, and Rantisi Children Hospital.
Israeli forces ‘used phosphorus bombs’
The Ministries of Interior and Health in the Gaza Strip confirmed that the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital and the Al-Shati Camp, west of Gaza City, had also been subjected to violent bombardment by Israeli forces.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement: “The occupation forces launched a series of violent raids in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital and Al-Shati Camp, west of Gaza City.”
The Israeli forces “used phosphorus bombs,” it added.
The local newspaper Felesteen reported earlier Friday the outbreak of "violent clashes" with the resistance near the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, which is the largest in the Strip. The hospital is a shelter for thousands of displaced people from the northern areas of the Strip.
There was "intense Israeli artillery shelling in the vicinity of the Al-Shifa complex,” the newspaper said.
The Al-Shifa Complex shelters Palestinians displaced from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south, an Anadolu correspondent reported.
Al-Shifa Hospital and its surroundings are constantly targeted by the Israeli army, which claims that “there is a headquarters for Palestinian militants.” The Gaza government has repeatedly denied these allegations.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Health announced Friday morning that Israeli forces had besieged the Al-Rantisi and Al-Nasr Children Hospitals and that the lives of thousands of patients, medical staff, and displaced people were at risk due to hunger, dehydration, and direct bombardment.
‘Destruction of hospitals unbearable’
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced that one person was killed and 20 others, most of them children, were injured when Israeli army snipers targeted Al-Quds Hospital, west of Gaza City.
In a statement, the association said on Friday that all services at the Al-Quds Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip will cease within three hours because of a lack of fuel, which it attributed to the Israeli blockade.
It emphasized that in such a situation, 500 patients and the injured would be deprived of health services. It said patients in intensive care, as well as babies in incubators, would lose their lives.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf Al-Qudra, announced on Friday that Israeli forces were besieging the Al-Rantisi Children Hospital, west of Gaza City.
“A massive fire broke out in the hospital’s basement after it was targeted by Israeli aircraft,” the spokesman said.
The Israeli aircraft also targeted Al-Nasr Hospital and the vicinity of the Patient’s Friend Medical Facility.
It also destroyed an ambulance after it bombed the vicinity of Al-Awda Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Friday called for the respect and protection of medical facilities, patients, and healthcare workers in Gaza, saying destruction because of the ongoing conflict is becoming "unbearable."
"The destruction affecting hospitals in Gaza is becoming unbearable and needs to stop. The lives of thousands of civilians, patients, and medical staff are at risk," said William Schomburg, head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Gaza.
Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip – including hospitals, residences, and houses of worship – since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7.
At least 11,078 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,506 children and 3,027 women. The Israeli death toll, meanwhile, is nearly 1,200, according to official figures.
*Writing by Ikram Kouachi
