Thousands of sick and wounded Palestinians have fled Gaza’s largest hospital as Israeli forces pound the hospital, as well as others, believed by Israeli to be used by Hamas as human shield.
According to a report by the Associated Press (AP), Palestinian militants are battling Israeli forces outside its gates, with hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies stranded and at risk of dying because of power blackout.
The report noted, however, that with only intermittent communications, it was difficult to reconcile competing claims from the Israeli military and Palestinian health officials.
While Israel said it was providing safe corridors for people to escape intense fighting in the north and move south, Palestinian officials said the compound was surrounded by constant heavy gunfire.
Israel also claimed that it placed 300 liters (79 gallons) of fuel near the hospital to help power its generators, but that Hamas militants prevent staff from reaching it.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza disputed that and said the fuel would have provided less than an hour of electricity.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Shifa has been without water for three days and “is not functioning as a hospital anymore,” in a post on social media.
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Another hospital in Gaza City, Al-Quds, was forced to shut down on Sunday because it ran out of fuel.
The Palestinian Red Crescent, which operates the facility, said Israeli forces are stationed nearby and that preparations are being made to evacuate some 6,000 patients, medics and displaced people.
Both sides have seized on the plight of hospitals, particularly Shifa’s, as a symbol of the larger war, now in its sixth week.
The fighting was triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 surprise attack into Israel, and Israel’s response has brought unseen levels of death and destruction to Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents, nearly two-thirds of whom have had to flee their homes with no safe refuge available in the besieged territory.
For Palestinians, Shifa evokes the suffering of civilians. Thousands of people displaced by airstrikes that have destroyed entire city blocks have sought shelter in its darkened corridors.
Doctors running low on supplies perform surgery there on war-wounded patients, including children, without anesthesia.
Israel says the hospital is the prime example of its allegation that Hamas uses human shields, claiming that the militants have a command center and other military infrastructure in and beneath the medical compound. It has not provided photos or videos to back up these claims. Hamas and hospital staff deny them.
Mohammed Zaqout, the director of hospitals in Gaza, says there are about 650 patients and critically wounded people in Shifa being treated by around 500 medical staff.
He estimated that around 2,500 displaced Palestinians are sheltering inside hospital buildings, estimating that some 3,000 medics and patients, as well as 15,000 to 20,000 displaced people, were sheltering there.
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