In the war that Israel is waging in Gaza to combat Hamas, health centers and ambulances are another target of its attacks. For thousands of Gazans in the north of the strip, hospitals are synonymous with refuge and healing, but in the eyes of the Hebrew army they are a cover for the main commanders of the Islamist group. Meanwhile, UN agencies, Doctors Without Borders and the Red Crescent, among other organizations operating on the ground, warn at every moment that the siege and Israeli bombs are causing “the total collapse” of the health system. of the Palestinian territory. Warnings without any mitigating effect of barbarism.
More than a month after the start of the current conflict, which has caused more than 10,800 deaths and nearly 27,000 injuries in Gaza, there are fewer and fewer places to go. Twenty of the 35 hospitals and 40 primary care centers have had to close due to bombing or lack of fuel, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health in Gaza, governed by Hamas. Specifically, 120 medical facilities have been attacked by Israel since the Islamist group's armed incursion on October 7, eight of them in the last week, in which the Israeli army has intensified harassment.
During last night and this Friday, Israeli bombs fell on at least three hospitals. "Israel is now launching a war against the hospitals in Gaza City, against the Rantisi, Al Naser and Al Shifa hospitals," the director of the third, Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, told Reuters.
Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest hospital complex, is sheltering thousands of Gazans, many of whom had just fled recent fighting in the Shati refugee camp a few streets north, as the army continues moving in his direction. He was attacked twice. The second projectile fell on the maternity building, causing “13 deaths and dozens of injuries,” health officials reported. The WHO confirmed that the center "was being bombed."
“The people who were taking refuge in the surrounding area have been destroyed,” a Palestinian doctor living in Spain reports to La Vanguardia, while sharing the recording of the consequences of the attack, in which several bloodied people are seen, including children. , and other inert ones in the soil.
In the previous attack last night, which hit a car parked inside an internal plaza of the hospital, it left “several people with amputated limbs.” Last week, an Israeli attack on an ambulance convoy in front of the hospital killed at least 15 people, in an attack that Human Rights Watch (HRW) calls for be investigated as a war crime.
Likewise, Israeli tanks are surrounding the "Al Rantisi and Al Naser children's, eye and mental health hospitals", also in Gaza City, "from all directions", said the Gaza Health spokesman. Images on social networks show these tanks taking positions nearby. In addition, strong explosions were recorded in the Indonesian hospital, located in the extreme north of the enclave: "Indonesia once again condemns the savage attacks against civilians and civilian objects, especially humanitarian facilities in Gaza," said the country's Foreign Ministry. Southeast Asia, which finances the hospital, after confirming the attack.
"With continued attacks and fighting near (Al Shifa), we are gravely concerned for the well-being of thousands of civilians there, many of them children, who are seeking medical care and shelter," HRW added to the complaints.
The Israeli military campaign to eliminate Hamas, following the attack in southern Israel that left 1,400 dead, has left Gaza hospitals struggling to cope, while medical supplies, drinking water and fuel for Power generators are running out. The capital's other largest hospital, Al Quds, has also been subject to attacks in its surroundings and, in addition, only has fuel for two hours of electricity a day, which is why it has had to cut off surgery and generation services. of oxygen and has stopped performing MRIs. The center houses some 14,000 displaced people, the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) reported on Wednesday. The NGO has been warning for days of numerous attacks in the vicinity of the hospital.
Israel claims that Hamas has built its tunnels under the hospitals, which it uses not only as a refuge but also as a warehouse for its arsenal. So the medical team, the patients and the thousands of refugees staying there are used as human shields by the Islamist group, says Tel Aviv.
The al Shifa hospital, literally translated as the “house of healing,” is currently one of the main objectives of Israel, which claims that beneath its facilities is the most important military center and underground infrastructure of Hamas. That is why these days Israeli troops are entering Gaza City from the north in the midst of heavy fighting to reach the hospital complex, which has the capacity to treat 700 patients, although at the end of last month it was treating about 5,000. in very precarious conditions, according to Doctors Without Borders, which has staff working in the hospital. Surgeons have been forced to amputate limbs from patients lying on the floor without anesthesia.
"Hamas systematically exploits hospitals as part of its war machine," says Israel's military spokesman, Daniel Hagari. Last month, the Israeli military released a video using a combination of satellite images, graphic animations and audio recordings, collected by its intelligence, demonstrating Hamas' use of the underground portion of the hospital, with tunnels and wards. of meetings. The Islamist group has rejected these accusations and claims that the hospital houses more than 40,000 displaced people.
Ambulances do not escape this purpose. According to the Hebrew army, Hamas fighters use them to move or transport weapons through the strip without being discovered. "It is another example of how the terrorist organization exploits civilian infrastructure and uses civilians as human shields," argues the Israeli army.
Israel shared these accusations just days after bombing the ambulance convoy that was to evacuate dozens of wounded from Al Shifa hospital to the south on November 3. To justify its actions, Israel released to the media this week recorded confessions of alleged Hamas militants confirming the use of emergency vehicles as well as hospitals by the Al Qasam brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
Earlier this week a convoy carrying humanitarian aid and medical supplies from the International Committee of the Red Cross, a neutral organization based in Geneva, was attacked. He was heading to Al Shifa and Al Quds hospitals. "The ICRC was attacked, and that is unacceptable," William Schomburg, head of the ICRC delegation in Gaza, told Reuters by videoconference, while announcing the resumption of the transfer of patients from Gaza City to the Egyptian border crossing. , after a brief pause due to the attack.
