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- Indonesia’s president says the world seems “helpless” in the face of Palestinian suffering
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GAZA/JERUSALEM, Nov 13 (Portal) – Gaza’s largest hospital has ceased operations and deaths among patients are rising, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday, as a fierce Israeli attack on Hamas continues . controlled strip.
Hospitals in the north of the Palestinian enclave, including the Al-Shifa complex, are blocked by Israeli forces and are barely able to care for patients there. Medical staff say three newborns have died and others are at risk from power outages while heavy fighting broke out nearby.
Israel says it is targeting Palestinian Hamas militants who carried out deadly attacks in southern Israel on October 7, saying the group has command centers under and near hospitals.
The WHO managed to speak to health experts in al-Shifa, who described a “worst and dangerous” situation with constant shootings and bombings making the already critical situation worse, said Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Tragically, the number of patient deaths has increased significantly,” he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that al-Shifa “no longer operates as a hospital.”
Tedros joined other senior United Nations officials in calling for an immediate ceasefire.
“The world cannot remain silent as hospitals that should be safe havens are transformed into scenes of death, devastation and despair,” he said.
The president of Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, also called for a ceasefire ahead of his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington on Monday.
“A ceasefire must be implemented soon, we must also accelerate and increase the amount of humanitarian aid and we must begin peace negotiations,” President Joko Widodo said in a video recorded after he attended an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). had Riyadh.
He said the world was “helpless” in the face of the suffering of Palestinians. The extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit also called on the International Criminal Court to investigate “war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel” in the Palestinian territories.
Israel says it is trying to free the more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas militants on October 7 and says hospitals should be evacuated.
The European Union condemned Hamas for using “hospitals and civilians as human shields” in Gaza, while calling on Israel to show “maximum restraint” to protect civilians.
“These hostilities are severely impacting hospitals and taking a terrible toll on civilians and medical personnel,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement on Sunday on behalf of the 27-nation bloc.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Hamas was using hospitals and other civilian facilities to house fighters and weapons, which he said was a violation of the laws of war.
“The United States does not want to see firefights in hospitals where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, are caught in the crossfire, and we have had active consultations with the Israeli Defense Forces about this,” Sullivan told CBS News.
[1/9]Palestinian girl Orheen Al-Dayah, who was injured in the forehead in an Israeli attack amid the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel, has her wounds stitched without anesthesia at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on November 8, 2023. Portal/Doaa Rouqa Purchase license rights
Israel declared war on Hamas more than a month ago after militants rampaged across southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli officials.
Palestinian officials said Friday that 11,078 Gazans have been killed by air and artillery strikes since then, about 40% of them children.
The Israeli military’s response has also sparked outrage in several cities around the world, where hundreds of thousands of people protested and called for a ceasefire.
Israel’s supporters, including in Washington, say a ceasefire would allow Hamas to prepare for more attacks, but the Biden administration has pushed Israel to allow pauses in fighting to allow civilians to flee and aid to flow in.
Biden, who spoke with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Sunday about developments in Gaza, agreed that all hostages held by Hamas must be released “without further delay,” the White House said in a statement.
The conflict has sparked fears of a larger conflagration. Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran, has traded rocket attacks with Israel, and other Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria have launched at least 40 separate drone and rocket attacks on U.S. forces.
The United States carried out two airstrikes against Iran-aligned groups in Syria on Sunday, a US defense official told Portal, in what appeared to be the latest response to the attacks.
BABIES AT RISK
The Israeli military said it offered to evacuate newborns and deposited 300 liters of fuel at the entrance to al-Shifa on Saturday evening, but both gestures were blocked by Hamas.
Hamas denied refusing the fuel and said the hospital was under the supervision of Gaza’s Health Ministry. She added that the amount of fuel offered by Israel “was not enough to run the hospital’s generators for more than half an hour.”
Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, said that of the 45 babies in al-Shifa’s incubators, three had already died.
A plastic surgeon in al-Shifa said the bombing of the building housing incubators forced staff to place premature babies on regular beds and use the little energy available to run air conditioning for warmth.
“We expect that we will lose more of them every day,” said Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said the strip’s second-largest hospital, Al-Quds, was also out of service as staff struggled to care for patients already there due to a lack of medicine, food and water.
“Al-Quds Hospital has been cut off from the world for the past six to seven days. No way in, no way out,” said Tommaso Della Longa, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Dan Williams in Jerusalem; additional reporting by Adam Makary, Ahmed Tolba, Sabine Siebold and Andrea Shalal; writing by Simon Lewis and Michael Perry; Editing by Diane Craft and Miral Fahmy
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