Tag: Al Shifa

  • Israeli military wants evacuation of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza

    Israeli military wants evacuation of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza

    Al Jazeera has reported that according to Hani Mahmoud, their colleague reporting from Gaza, the Israeli army has given a notice to forcefully displaced people to immediately leave Al-Shifa Medical Complex or the premises will be bombed.

    Mahmoud suggests that based on past bombing patterns, the entire hospital complex is at risk of destruction at the hands of the Israeli army.

    Al Jazeera also reports that as per local Palestinian media reports that a building used for specialised care within al-Shifa Hospital has been destroyed by the Israeli military.

    The military justified the raid on Monday by claiming according to intelligence, Hamas fighters were using the hospital complex for shelter. During the raid, approximately 90 Palestinians were killed, 300 suspects were interrogated, and over 160 were detained.

    Israel is continuing with its policies of destroying all infrastructure in Gaza, including health institutions, to force the strip to become completely uninhabitable.

  • Israeli military tells Gazans to evacuate Al-Shifa hospital

    Israeli military tells Gazans to evacuate Al-Shifa hospital

    Palestinian Territories

    Israel’s military on Monday called on Gazans to evacuate the area in and around the territory’s largest hospital as battles raged at the complex crowded with patients and displaced people.

    “In order to maintain your security, you must immediately evacuate the area,” army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on social media platform X, instructing “all those present” to head west and then south to a “humanitarian area”.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • Israeli army arrests Al-Shifa Hospital director; Gaza Health Ministry blames WHO

    Israeli army arrests Al-Shifa Hospital director; Gaza Health Ministry blames WHO

    While the terms of a ceasefire deal are being finalized Israel and Hamas, the Israeli army has reportedly arrested the director of al-Shifa Hospital on Thursday.

    According to media reports, hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya and several other medical personnel have been detained as Israel continues its Gaza offensive.

    The arrest has been reported by Khalid Abu Samra, a department chief at the hospital via AFP news agency as well as the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.

    “Dr Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa medical complex, has been arrested by the Israeli occupation forces. And even earlier, two Palestinian paramedics had been arrested by the Israeli occupation forces,” said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from southern Gaza.

    “This gives a clear sign that there is no immunity inside the Gaza Strip, neither for medical workers, civil defence crews or even journalists, as the attacks have reached all classes in the Palestinian community.”

    Al Jazeera has also revealed that according to spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra, Gaza’s Health Ministry has decided to put a halt on coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the evacuation of wounded people and medical staff.

    He claims that Israel and the UN are responsible for the arrest of medical personnel, further stating that Israeli forces have mistreated medical staff and patients.

  • 29 premature babies evacuated from Gaza arrive in Egypt: media

    29 premature babies evacuated from Gaza arrive in Egypt: media

    AFP – Cairo, Egypt: Twenty-nine premature babies arrived in Egypt on Monday, Egyptian media said, after they were evacuated from Gaza’s largest hospital which has become a focal point of Israel’s war with Hamas.

    The infants were evacuated Sunday from the Al-Shifa hospital, which the World Health Organization has described as a “death zone” as Israel seeks to uncover what it says are Hamas bases in tunnels underneath the facility.

    An initial 31 babies were reported evacuated from Al-Shifa to another Gaza clinic and it was not immediately clear why only 29 arrived in Egypt.

  • Al Shifa hospital forcefully evacuated within hours on Israeli orders

    After days of attacking Al Shifa hospital in Gaza and raiding it room by room, the Israeli military has now forcefully evacuated premises on Saturday.

    The hospital’s Director, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, told Al Jazeera that the hospital is now “completely deserted” while the few patients and victims left are lying in corridors.

    He added that those in dire conditions, including newborns and kidney patients, “will die imminently if they are not evacuated,” further stating that Israeli soldiers “are in total control” and that the remaining medical staff “cannot move freely”.

    Earlier today,the Israeli military had ordered everyone — including doctors, patients and displaced people — to evacuate in an hour.

    This, as reported by Al Jazeera, created a sense of panic as it is impossible to flee Al Shifa in such a brief period. A Palestinian health official said that evacuees were “ordered at 9am [7:00 GMT] to leave while waving a white handkerchiefs and walk in a single-file line.”

    Medical staff and others present at Al Shifa revealed that there are patients who cannot be abandoned, including those who cannot walk.

    Munir al-Barsh, director-general of Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that about “450 patients were evacuated, while about 120 patients were left behind with five doctors, including the director and a few nurses, because they were immobile.”

    Additionally, a list of critical patients has been given to the Red Cross so they can be taken to Egypt for treatment.

    Adnan al-Barsh, head of orthopaedics at al-Shifa Hospital, stated that Israeli snipers are in and around the hospital compound, saying that “We were adamant on not leaving without our patients … we were forced to leave at gunpoint.”

    The Israeli army denied issuing the evacuation order, however, all officials and other people at Al Shifa have described the total opposite of Israeli claims.

  • Israel raids Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital: Day two

    Israel raids Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital: Day two

    Al Jazeera reports that a building for specialised surgeries at al-Shifa Hopital in Gaza has been fully wrecked from the inside while Israeli forces bombed a warehouse containing medicine and medical equipment inside the hospital.

    Reportedly the Israeli military “literally tore it apart – all the partitions, walls between the rooms, and all the medical equipment inside the building have been completely destroyed”, writes Al Jazeera.

    It has also been revealed that 200 people were “blindfolded and interrogated and taken to unknown areas; their fate is unknown.”

    Witnesses present inside the hospital informed Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers stripped 30 people, leading them to the courtyard of the hospital.

    Al-Shifa hospital was surrounded by Israeli armed forces for the past few days, and is now being raided by Israeli soldiers.

    Israeli bulldozers have also fully knocked down the southern entrance to al-Shifa Hospital and all vehicles in its courtyard.

    Yesterday, BBC spoke to a journalist inside Al Shifa hospital who said that Israeli soldiers are checking through all the areas and interrogating people.

    Al Jazeera also reported that the Israeli military has stormed into the hospital’s main buildings “under the cover of heavy gunfire and tank shells”. They are reportedly inside the emergency department, the specialised surgeries department and the maternity ward.

  • Israeli soldiers going door to door in Shifa Hospital for patient interrogation 

    Israeli soldiers going door to door in Shifa Hospital for patient interrogation 

    Al Shifa hospital in Gaza, which was surrounded by Israeli armed forces for the past few days, is now being raided by Israeli soldiers.

    BBC spoke to a journalist inside Al Shifa hospital who has told that Israeli soldiers are checking through all the areas and interrogating people.

    Al Jazeera also reported that the Israeli military has stormed into the hospital’s main buildings “under the cover of heavy gunfire and tank shells”. They are reportedly inside the emergency department, the specialised surgeries department and the maternity ward.

    Israeli soldiers are doing search operations “room by room, corridor by corridor, interrogating doctors and medical staff individually.”

    Israel is basing and justifying their operation on the claims that al-Shifa Hospital is being used by Hamas, however, this has not been proven with any evidence as yet.

    The Israeli army has also set up electronic checkpoints at multiple doors of the main buildings of the hospital and they are calling people inside including medical team, patients, the injured — to “officially” interrogate everyone in the premises.

    Gaza’s health ministry has reported that there are about 2,500 people inside the hospital at the moment. Apart from medical teams and patients, there are 600 wounded people and 36 neonates as well as displaced people seeking shelter.

  • Deadly attacks, decomposing bodies, lack of services: What we know about day 39

    Deadly weapons used against Gaza

    The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has revealed that Israel has dropped more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives on the Gaza Strip since October 7, equivalent to two nuclear bombs.

    In comparison, the United States dropped the Little Boy nuclear bomb on Hiroshima during World War II, yielding 15,000 tonnes of high explosives and wrecking everything within a 1.6km (1-mile) radius.

    Plan to bury decomposing bodies in Al Shifa compound

    Reuters reported that a doctor Ahmed Al Mokhallalati and Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra have claimed in separate telephone interviews that more than 100 dead bodies are presently unburied and have begun to decompose, “creating an acute sanitary crisis”.

    “We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside the Al Shifa medical complex. It is going to be very dangerous as we don’t have any cover or protection from the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), but we have no other options, the corpses of the martyrs began to decompose,” said Qidra. “The men are digging right now as we speak.”

    Qidra claims the number of bodies accumulated at Al Shifa at about 100 whereas Mokhallalati said it was about 120.

    More than half of Gaza hospitals non operational

    According to the World Health Organization, 22 of 36 hospitals in Gaza are out of service “due to lack of fuel, damage, attacks and insecurity”.

    While calling for an immediate ceasefire, the UN’s health agency also warned that the remaining 14 hospitals “have barely enough supplies to sustain critical and life saving surgeries and provide inpatient care, including intensive care”.

    Water supplies on hold due to lack of fuel

    The United Nations reported that infrastructure for the operation of water and waste management in southern Gaza is no longer functioning.

    “Due to lack of fuel, public sewage pumping stations, 60 water wells in the south, the two main desalination plants in Rafah and the Middle Area, the two main sewage pumps in the south, and the Rafah wastewater treatment plant have all ceased operations,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated, citing the organisation’s Palestinian relief agency UNRWA.

    “Coupled with the shutdown of municipal sanitation work, this is posing a serious threat to public health, increasing the risk of water contamination and the outbreak of diseases.”

    At least 42 journalists killed since October 7

    The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has revealed that at least 42 journalists and media workers have been killed since October 7 as Israel intensified its attacks, stating that the period was the most deadly for journalists since the CPJ’s data collection began in 1992.

    Credits: Al Jazeera

  • Al-Shifa under attack; several at risk of dying: What we know about day 36

    On Saturday, Palestinian Health Ministry reported that 39 children, including babies in incubators in the ICU of Al-Shifa Hospital, in Gaza are at risk of dying at any moment as there is no oxygen to keep them alive. Simultaneously, hospital premises has been targeted with heavy air and artillery bombardment by Israeli forces.

    Al Jazeera spoke to Gaza Deputy Health Minister Dr. Youssef Abu Alreesh who was inside al-Shifa Hospital while Israeli forces surrounded the facility.

    “No one is able to move around the compound, snipers are stationed all over the place in addition to the drones that target and kill any moving person.

    Part of the hospital was shelled and part of the building caught fire, we fear it will engulf the whole compound,” he said.

    He also said that when some families tried to leave, they were targeted by Israeli forces, resulting in their bodies lying outside the hospital that staff have not been able to retrieve.

    Israeli army used white phosphorus on al-Shifa: Palestine health minister

    Palestinian health minister, Mai al-Kaila, claims that Israel used white phosphorus shelling on Al -Shifa.

    “This is an internationally banned weapon. We are wondering who is responsible for holding Israel to account for shelling al-Shifa Hospital with white phosphorus,” she told a news conference in Ramallah, adding that Israeli forces were committing a “genocide” in Gaza.

    “Inevitable death has become the fate of patients in Gaza hospitals – and we hold Israel, the United Nations and the international community responsible for that.”

    Internally displaced Gazans

    In conversation with Al Jazeera, the communications director of the UN’s Palestine relief agency UNRWA, Juliette Touma, said between 50,000 and 80,000 have left their homes since November 4, fleeing from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip.

  • More than 1000 Pakistani doctors volunteer to help in Gaza

    More than 1000 Pakistani doctors volunteer to help in Gaza

    Alkhidmat Health Foundation has announced that over 1000 doctors from Pakistan, including 400 females, have volunteered their services to provide treatment to the critically wounded and injured in Gaza. Currently, the death toll has hit 7000 dead civilians and right now there is fear of further genocide as Israel has cut off all communication services, leaving media organisations and human rights organisations completely in the dark. The few videos that have released so far show intense bombing and vicious attacks on refugee camps.

    Speaking to ‘The News’, the chairman of Al-Khidmat Health Foundation Dr Zahid Latif, said: “Since Saturday when we launched an online appeal for healthcare volunteers to serve in the Gaza strip, over 1,000 medical specialists including orthopedic, vascular and general surgeons, anesthetists, pediatric surgeons, emergency and critical care specialists and gynaecologists have registered with us to help their injured and sick brethren in Gaza.”

    Gaza is undergoing a healthcare crisis, tethering on the brink of collapse as they overpile with civilians and children wounded and critically injured from the ongoing Israeli airstrikes. Al-Shifa hospital currently holds 62,000 displaced Gazans, and more than 600 babies are in incubators out of which 120 are on critical life-or-death situations, according to Dr. Amr.

    Dr Zahid said among the 40 per cent health care specialists who have volunteered to go to Gaza, there were female specialists including genealogists, pediatricians, surgeons, including nurses who expressed their desire to go and help the wounded in Gaza.

    He further added the organisation has approached the World Health Organisation (WHO) office in Islamabad, as well as the office of Cairo, Egypt to let them know about how Pakistani health professionals are willing to provide services in Gaza, despite how difficult it is to enter the region at this moment.

    “We very well know that at the moment, it is almost impossible to go to Gaza due to ongoing war but we are under tremendous pressure from Pakistani healthcare fraternity to make arrangements for them to go to Gaza. At the moment, the WHO and our partner organisations have not given us any green signal to send the healthcare professionals to any neighbouring country of Israel for serving in Gaza,” Dr Latif said.

    Currently, Al-Khidmat organisation is sending medicines, medical supplies, hygiene facilities and safe delivery kits to aid hospitals in Gaza through the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), while their Turkish-based partner is providing food and other facilities to the reigion.

    “There are around 50,000 pregnant ladies in Gaza, who need medical assistance for safe deliveries and at a time when most of the health facilities have been destroyed by the Israeli forces, safe deliveries can only be carried out at homes where they would need safe delivery kits and proper awareness,” Dr Latif said.