Health crisis escalates for thousands still at Shifa Medical Complex

At least 2,000 people are surrounded by the Israeli military forces in northern Gaza’s largest medical complex, Shifa.

Several hundreds of these are wounded people or patients in need of health care, some of them newborn infants. At least 20 people have died, the Palestinian Health Ministry has said, with the hospital complex no longer able to provide the necessary medical assistance as the Gaza Strip endures the fifth week of Israel’s ongoing bombardment.

Israel continues to insist that Hamas, which governs the strip, has a control center under the hospital, a claim that Hamas has categorically denied.

Monday was the third consecutive day that the Shifa Hospital remained surrounded by Occupation forces tanks, said Palestinian Health Ministry Spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra.

Gaza City in the northern part of the strip has been encircled by Occupation forces which entered the Strip at the end of October. The Occupation insists that residents, tens of thousands of displaced people and sick patients as well as medical staff in the Strip’s north evacuate toward Gaza’s south, a journey during which many have already been killed or injured and which international organizations stress is a huge logistical undertaking. 

“We are besieged. Shifa Hospital is inside a circle of death,” Qidra said on Monday from inside the hospital. He said that Israeli snipers and drones are firing into Shifa, making it impossible for medics and patients to move around.

“Occupation forces surrounding the hospital targeted a group of displaced residents at a restaurant near the hospital,” said eyewitnesses in the area speaking to Mada Masr on Monday. “At first, they refused to allow some of the wounded to enter the hospital complex, then later made it a  requirement for the displaced to raise white flags if they wanted to bring injured people to the hospital.”

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) also known as Doctors Without Borders, reported that the Occupation forces are shooting at people in the streets in the area. “We can see the wounded. We hear them crying for help, but we can't do anything. Going outside is very dangerous,” a staff member is cited as saying. MSF added that they are unable to reach any of their staff inside Shifa Hospital.

“The situation is horrendous and we cannot even bury the dead,” reports CNN International Correspondent Paula Hancocks on Monday, while a Palestinian Health Ministry official said on Tuesday that they were trying to dig a collective grave within Shifa after failing in their efforts to remove bodies from the complex.

“The dogs are devouring the martyrs’ bodies,” Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza Director General Mounir al-Barsh is quoted as saying.

Shifa is still hosting at least 2,300 displaced, ill, and wounded people after hundreds of thousands of people have fled from the north of the strip since the beginning of the month, as generators power out due to lack of fuel. The World Health Organization estimated on Monday that around 600 patients, 200-500 medical staff and around 1,500 displaced people remain within the complex, however, Qidra told Al-Jazeera from inside the complex on Monday that the numbers are much higher, noting that the number of patients and medical personnel are around 1,500, while an estimate of 5,000-7,000 displaced people are also taking refuge within the complex.

By Sunday night, 20 people had died at Shifa due to a lack of functioning oxygen generators and other life-saving devices, Qidra said, in comments that were picked up in the government-aligned Youm7 news outlet. Six premature babies and another nine patients had died by Monday morning, the Palestinian Health Ministry added.

The hospital, along with all other hospitals in the northern part of the Strip, is completely debilitated due to a total lack of supplies over the past five weeks. A “complete siege,” as ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has prevented supplies of food, water, medical aid and fuel from reaching the strip, with the exception of aid shipments trickling in via Egypt.

But Israel has also stipulated restrictions on these aid deliveries, enforcing a total prohibition on essential fuel crossing the border and preventing all aid from reaching the northern part of the strip, while simultaneously pushing residents to evacuate and move toward southern Gaza. Fleeing northern Gaza is a huge logistical and humanitarian challenge, said the International Committee of the Red Cross, while residents of Gaza told Mada Masr that many have been killed, injured or arrested while endeavoring to make the journey.

The Occupation claimed on Sunday that Hamas prohibited the Shifa Hospital’s staff from using 300 liters of fuel that Israeli soldiers placed in containers next to the hospital on Saturday evening to support the “hospital’s urgent medical purposes”. However, Shifa Hospital Director General Mohammed Abu Silmiya denied the allegations. In comments carried by regional outlet Asharq al Awsat, Abu Silmiya said that his team feared being shot if they left the complex, adding that 300 liters would not be a sufficient amount to run the generators of the complex for “fifteen minutes.”

After the director said on Tuesday that the medics were wrapping newborns in aluminum in place of incubators due to the lack of fuel, the Occupation also claimed on Tuesday that it would be delivering incubators to the Strip, though it did not clarify how they would work in the absence of electricity.

Abu Silmiya also stated that the Occupation should send the fuel to the complex in cooperation with the ICRC or any other international organization.

Israel has claimed that Hamas headquarters lie underneath the hospital complex and that it is using patients as human shields. Hamas has denied the claims. 

The European Union, however, said in a statement on Monday that it “condemns the use of hospitals and civilians as human shields by Hamas,” also urging Israel to minimize civilian casualties.

With gunfire also heard in the vicinity of Quds Hospital on Monday, US President Joe Biden told reporters on Monday night that “hospitals must be protected” in the Strip and that his “hope and expectation is that there will be less intrusive action relative to hospitals.”

As Israel’s bombardment of the strip continues, at least 11,180 people have been killed in total, the Palestinian government media office said on Monday.