DEIR EL-BALAH – Thousands of other people seem to have fled from Gaza’s greatest hospital as Israeli forces and Palestinian militants fight out of doors its gates, but loads of sufferers, including dozens of young children susceptible to loss of life as a result of a loss of electrical energy, remained within, well being officers stated Monday.
With most effective intermittent communications, it used to be tricky to reconcile competing claims from the Israeli army, which stated it used to be offering a secure hall for other people to transport south, and Palestinian well being officers inside the hospital, who stated the compound used to be surrounded by consistent heavy gunfire.
The army additionally stated it had positioned 300 liters (79 gallons) of gas close to the hospital to lend a hand energy its turbines, but that Hamas militants had avoided personnel from attaining it. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza disputed that, and stated the gas would have supplied not up to an hour of electrical energy.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated Shifa has been with out water for 3 days and “is not functioning as a hospital anymore,” in a post on social media.
Both sides have seized on the hospital’s plight as a symbol of the larger war, now in its sixth week. The fighting was triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 surprise attack into Israel, and Israel’s response has brought unseen levels of death and destruction to Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents, nearly two-thirds of whom have had to flee their homes with no safe refuge available in the besieged territory.
For Palestinians, Shifa evokes the suffering of civilians. Doctors running low on supplies perform surgery on war-wounded patients, including children, without anesthesia. Thousands of people displaced by airstrikes that have destroyed entire city blocks have sought shelter in its darkened corridors.
Israel says the hospital is the prime example of Hamas’s alleged use of human shields, claiming — without evidence — that the militants have a command center and other military infrastructure in and beneath the medical compound. Hamas and hospital staff deny those allegations.
Mohammed Zaqout, the director of hospitals in Gaza, says there are about 650 patients and critically wounded people in Shifa being treated by around 500 medical staff. He estimated that around 2,500 displaced Palestinians are sheltering inside hospital buildings.
On Saturday, the Health Ministry estimated that some 3,000 medics and patients, as well as 15,000 to 20,000 displaced people, were sheltering there.
A U.N. health official said many displaced families and patients with moderate injuries fled Shifa as Israeli forces encircled the hospital over the weekend. The official, who was not authorized to brief reporters and so spoke on condition of anonymity, said most of the remaining patients could only be relocated with ambulances and other special procedures.
It’s unclear where they would go, as several hospitals and clinics in Gaza have been forced to shut down, while others are already working at full capacity with dwindling supplies.
The Health Ministry says three babies and four other patients have died since the hospital’s emergency generator ran out of fuel on Saturday. It said another 36 babies and other patients are at risk of dying because there is no way to power life-saving medical equipment.
The military said troops would assist in moving babies on Sunday, without saying how it would transport them or where they would be relocated. There was no indication Monday that any had been moved.
Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity that has supported Shifa’s neonatal intensive care unit, said transferring critically ill infants is complex. “With ambulances unable to reach the hospital … and no hospital with capacity to receive them, there is no indication of how this can be done safely,” CEO Melanie Ward said. She said the only option was to pause the fighting and allow in fuel.
Christos Christou, the president of Doctors Without Borders, an international aid group, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” it will take weeks to evacuate the sufferers.
The U.S. has driven for brief pauses that may permit for wider distribution of badly wanted help to civilians within the territory, the place prerequisites are increasingly dire.
But Israel has most effective agreed to brief daily periods all over which civilians can flee floor battle in northern Gaza and head south on foot alongside two main roads. Israel continues to strike what it says are militant goals throughout southern Gaza, continuously killing girls and kids.
More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them girls and minors, had been killed for the reason that warfare started, in keeping with the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 other people had been reported lacking.
Health officers, a lot of whom determine of Shifa, have now not up to date that toll since Friday as a result of the trouble of getting access to hard-hit spaces and gathering information.
At least 1,200 other people had been killed at the Israeli aspect, most commonly civilians killed within the preliminary Hamas assault. Palestinian militants are holding nearly 240 hostages seized in the raid, including males, girls, kids and older adults. The army says 48 infantrymen had been killed in floor operations in Gaza.
About 250,000 Israelis have evacuated from communities close to Gaza, the place Palestinian militants are still firing barrages of rockets, and alongside the northern border with Lebanon, the place Israel and the Hezbollah militant team have many times traded fireplace, risking a much broader warfare. Attacks by Hezbollah on Sunday wounded seven Israeli troops and 10 others, Israel’s army and rescue products and services stated.
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Magdy reported from Cairo.
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Full AP protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.