12/18/2023 11:39
Amid the remains of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, a group of Palestinians search for bodies trapped in the rubble as a man cries as he covers a corpse before burying it.
Mahmoud Asaf, 50, traveled from Jabaliya to Beit Lahiya, in the region where the hospital is located, to pick up two children from his family who had been hospitalized for 10 days after suffering burns.
He found one of the youngest, Hadi, “lying paralyzed on his back under some chairs.” The boy appeared to be almost unconscious and suffered severe burns.
The health ministry of Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, said the Israeli army launched an attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital on December 12, reporting a siege lasting several days and that the soldiers had committed a “massacre.”
The Israeli army reported on Saturday (16) that it “has suspended its operations in the Kamal Adwan Hospital area” and accused the Palestinian Islamist movement of using the health unit as a control and command center.
Israeli authorities said they found weapons and detained 80 Hamas members at the medical center, the last public hospital in northern Gaza.
Asaf said he wanted to take the children with him as soon as possible after the army left, but was shocked by the “mass destruction” he witnessed at the scene.
“There are patients everywhere. There was nothing left, no life left. Children suffer severe burns. They had nothing to eat or drink and no treatment,” he reported.
Hamas accused Israeli forces of “firing into patient rooms” and said they had detained health workers and destroyed tents of displaced people seeking shelter at the site.
Israeli troops also attacked other health centers in Gaza, including the largest hospital in the Palestinian territory, Al Shifa in Gaza City, accusing Hamas of hiding a military base in the building, which the Islamist group denies.
“May they kill us all”
Gaza's entire health infrastructure was hit by the bombings and ground operation that Israel launched in response to Hamas's unprecedented bloody attack on Israeli territory on October 7, which left nearly 1,140 people dead, most of them civilians, according to the authorities Israel.
On the Palestinian side, according to the latest figures from Hamas, around 19,453 people died in Gaza, most of them women, children and young people.
The DirectorGeneral of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, expressed on Sunday (17) his “dismay” at the destruction recorded at Kamal Adwan Hospital, which resulted in the deaths of “at least eight patients”.
“Many patients had to leave the place alone, risking their health and safety as ambulances could not reach this facility,” he explained, adding that “several died due to lack of treatment.”
Abu Mohamed arrived at the place looking for his son, but he was left crying at the door leading to the courtyard.
“They demolished the building. They killed the doctors. Not even the doctors were saved. They left nothing behind,” lamented this father.
“My son is here. But I don't know how to find it,” he added, pointing to the rubble.
“Where are the Arab countries?” the man asked. “They have been killing us since 1948,” he said, referring to the year Israel was founded.
“May they kill us all so we can rest instead of experiencing this torture,” he said.
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