AlShifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, is operating without electricity after being bombed several times in the last 24 hours, the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported this Saturday (11).
The organization also said it had lost contact with a surgeon at AlQuds Hospital and received reports that other medical centers, such as AlRantisi Hospital, were surrounded by Israeli tanks.
Regarding AlShifa Hospital, Médecins Sans Frontières said it lost power on Friday (10) but that the site continued to operate “despite regular attacks and shortages”.
This Saturday, the Hamascontrolled Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip said that operations in Al Shifa had been suspended due to a lack of fuel. “As a result, a newborn died in the incubator containing 45 babies,” a spokesman said.
The largest hospital in the Gaza Strip is suspending operations due to a lack of fuel, Hamas’ health ministry said
The Israeli army, in turn, told American broadcaster CNN that it was engaged in “intense and sustained fighting” against Hamas near AlShifa, but did not say whether it was responsible for the attack on the health complex.
The Israeli Defense Forces claim that Hamas has been using hospitals in the Gaza Strip as command centers and therefore these sites must be evacuated.
According to Doctors Without Borders, “continuous shelling is preventing the evacuation of patients and staff” from AlShifa. The organization said its staff saw people being shot as they tried to flee the scene.
“There are many patients who have undergone surgery and cannot walk. They cannot be evacuated,” said Doctors Without Borders surgeon in AlShifa Mohammed Obeid. “We need an ambulance to transport them, but we don’t have the ambulances to transport all of these patients.”
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