The only two active hospitals in northern Gaza are collapsing

“TAll hospitals in Gaza and the north are out of service, except Al Shifa and Indonesian,” said Mohamed Zaqout, director general of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, at a press conference in the Palestinian enclave.

According to Zaqout (who is part of the Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by the Islamist group Hamas), the Al Shifa Intensive Care Unit (the most important medical center in the enclave, located in Gaza city), as well as the Indonesian Hospital (in Bait Lahia, very close to the northern border of the enclave) have been under intense Israeli fire.

In Al Shifa alone there are around 2,500 people, including medical staff, patients – including around 650 injured and 36 babies in incubators – and refugees, said Zaqout, who fears for the lives of patients who need to be connected to machines.

“What is happening in hospitals [em Gaza] It is a catastrophe: 12 patients died at Al Shifa Hospital due to a lack of electricity and medical products, including two newborns”, reported the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian National Authority, which governs small areas of the occupied West Bank.

Of the 35 hospitals in the Gaza Strip, 23 have already completely collapsed, due to a lack of energy, medicine, blood or anesthesia for surgical operations, according to the Ministry of Health.

Richard Hecht, spokesman for the Israeli Army, acknowledged today that, “aware of the hospital’s energy situation” and the condition of the 36 babies in incubators, the Israeli Armed Forces transported 300 liters of fuel to Al Shifa.

However, Israeli authorities insist that hospitals in the Gaza Strip are being used to house fighters from the Hamas group.

Today, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, condemned the “use of civilian hospitals as human shields” by Hamas, while asking Israel for “maximum restraint” in its bombings, to protect innocent lives.

The European Union “condemns the use of hospitals and civilians as human shields by Hamas (…) and is deeply concerned about the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza”, said Borrell, in a press release.

On the verge of collapse, Al Shifa hospital is trying to dig a mass grave to bury around a hundred bodies that it cannot keep in cold storage, but cannot do so due to the siege and attacks by Israeli forces.

Without water or electricity, two children’s hospitals in Gaza City, Al Nasr and Al Rantisi, closed their services on Saturday, leaving dozens of children without medical care, including five who were in intensive care, Zaqout reported.

“Children are at risk of death due to the forced evacuation of hospitals”, stressed the director general.

The Israeli Armed Forces have continued intense bombings in the Gaza Strip since October 7, when the war against Hamas broke out following an attack by the Islamic group in southern Israel that caused around 1,200 deaths and 240 people were kidnapped.

Since then, the Palestinian enclave has recorded more than 11,100 deaths, 28,200 injuries, 3,000 missing people and more than 1.5 million displaced people.

[Notícia atualizada às 21h17]

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