GAZA, (PIC)
After 17 days of Israeli ethnic cleansing operations in northern Gaza, hospitals in the area are facing the risk of complete collapse due to assaults by the occupation forces and their prevention of medical teams from moving to rescue victims. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights warned of a total collapse of hospitals in northern Gaza, rendering them inoperative during the most severe and challenging times of emergency, as the Israeli military offensive continues and intensifies for the sixteenth consecutive day.
Targeting of the Indonesian Hospital
In a statement on Monday, the center reported that the occupying forces deliberately bombed and targeted the upper floors of the Al-Awda and Indonesian hospitals early Saturday, October 19, 2024, trapping patients and medical staff inside, while escalating their bombings and targeting residential neighborhoods and civilian homes above their inhabitants.
The center warned against the repeated intentional targeting of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, the bombing of these facilities, and the killing of patients, medical staff, and displaced persons, as well as their siege and forced evacuation.
Hospitals in northern Gaza have previously been stormed, destroyed, and targeted during the occupation’s incursions in December and May, and were later partially repaired. The rights center said that the occupying forces insist on repeatedly targeting hospitals, leaving civilians without medical facilities to treat them, which constitutes part of the genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces.
Dr. Marwan Sultan, director of the Indonesian hospital, reported that Israeli occupation forces intensified their bombardment and gunfire toward the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya around midnight on Saturday, October 19. Israeli military vehicles reached the vicinity of the hospital around 4:30 AM, firing heavily and launching several shells toward its entrance and the upper floors, where about 40 patients and injured individuals, along with 15 medical staff, were present.
He added that this caused a power outage at the hospital and significant panic among the patients and medical staff, noting that approximately five shells hit the second and third floors, resulting in no injuries, as those floors were under repair. However, the continued power outage led to the death of two patients in the intensive care unit.
Simultaneously, the occupying forces bombed the upper floors of Al-Awda Hospital in Tel al-Zaatar in Jabalia, injuring several medical staff, one of whom is in critical condition, according to reports from the Al-Awda Health and Community Association.
Siege of civilians
Since October 5, the occupying forces have imposed a strict siege that deprives the civilian population in northern Gaza of any basic supplies necessary for survival. Through orders for forced evacuation, they seek to empty what remains of the population by using hunger and denial of medical treatment as weapons to achieve their military objectives, reflecting their ongoing commitment to committing acts of genocide.
After more than two weeks of intense military attacks, and with residents refusing to leave some besieged neighborhoods in the city of Jabalia and its camp, as well as other areas in northern Gaza that have become completely isolated from Gaza City, tens of thousands of civilians are trapped in their homes between death and starvation. They lack the most basic necessities of life due to restricted access to food and water, cuts to communication and internet services, and threats to evacuate hospitals by force while they are flooded with critically injured patients and have dozens of civilian corpses piled up inside.
Risk of hospitals going out of service
According to the human rights center, due to the ongoing siege and continued Israeli military operations, there is fear that the three hospitals, Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda, and the Indonesian, will go out of service, facing conditions similar to their evacuation in November and December 2023. They are currently operating below minimum capacity and with exhausted resources, due to prior targeting, a severe shortage of medical staff, fuel supplies, medicines, and food.
The aggression threatens the lives of the injured and more than 285 patients who are hospitalized, including eight newborns and five adults in intensive care, as well as about 161 patients in emergency departments, many of whom urgently need advanced surgeries such as neurosurgery, vascular surgery, ophthalmology, and cosmetic surgery—services that are unavailable in these hospitals, according to the Health Group in Palestine.
Heavy burdens at Kamal Adwan hospital
Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, confirmed that in recent days, the hospital has been receiving no less than 50 to 70 new casualties daily. He stated, “It seems we are witnessing an escalation in military operations and a potential increase in the number of injured, despite the fact that all hospitals in northern Gaza are running out of resources—there are no medicines or adequate medical supplies, and no fuel to operate their generators. Even patients and medical staff are exhausted after two weeks of a strict siege and dwindling food supplies.”
He warns that all of this prevents the continuation of life-saving services and poses a real disaster threatening the injured and patients in intensive care, as well as newborns in the only nursery in northern Gaza, especially if ventilators stop working for six critically ill children who require intensive care. The hospital lacks advanced health services, particularly orthopedic and neurosurgery, as well as burn and cosmetic surgery.
He added, “This situation applies to all hospitals in northern Gaza, leading doctors to face a difficult choice in prioritizing cases to provide care to those whose lives can be saved.”
Doctors are forced, according to Abu Safiya, to amputate the limbs of some injured individuals due to the inability to transfer them to hospitals in Gaza City for complex surgeries. There is a significant need to transfer dozens of injuries for specialized procedures in ophthalmology, vascular surgery, and neurosurgery. As a result, many injured and patients are losing their lives, necessitating urgent action from international organizations to pressure the occupying forces to provide a safe corridor for transporting patients and the injured before it is too late.
Crisis for pregnant women
With the escalation of bombing in the past two days and the announcement of the occupying forces that they will expand their military operations, vital health services in maternity departments, which are still operational at Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals under dire emergency conditions, are affected. This places the lives of newborns in incubators and women experiencing pregnancy complications at risk, with grave concerns for the lives of more than 9,000 pregnant women in besieged areas, especially with the cessation of services at 25 primary health care centers in northern Gaza, according to UN data.
Human rights organizations believe that leaving the health system in northern Gaza on the brink of complete collapse, along with the siege and targeting of its facilities by the occupying forces, amounts to a death sentence for thousands of injured and sick individuals, violating international and humanitarian laws. This calls for urgent international intervention to save civilians and halt the Israeli genocide.
