There have been scenes of chaos and panic at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis as Israeli forces stormed the medical facility within the southern Gaza Strip and Palestinians tried to evacuate.
The Israeli military has besieged the power for weeks, isolating hundreds of sufferers, medical employees and displaced households – a lot of whom stay trapped inside. Verified video footage confirmed those that tried to flee on Thursday got here underneath assault after leaving the hospital.
Gaza Ministry of Well being spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra mentioned Israeli troops have been forcing 95 medics, 191 sufferers and 165 displaced folks into an outdated constructing on the medical centre underneath “harsh conditions” with out water, meals or milk for the youngsters.
“The Nasser Medical Complex is witnessing a catastrophic, worrying situation because of the dwindling medical capacity as fuel is set to run out in the next 24 hours, which directly threatens the lives of patients, including six on respirators in intensive care and three children in incubators,” al-Qudra mentioned in a press release.
The Israeli military accused Hamas of utilizing the medical compound to carry captives, nevertheless it hasn’t supplied proof for the declare. The Palestinian group, which governs Gaza, has vehemently denied it.
The raid has displaced sufferers and medical staff who spoke of terrifying and strenuous circumstances.
“I left with my husband, who is blind. I was doing kidney dialysis. They destroyed the walls surrounding us as well as the doctor’s room. They ordered us to leave and fired at us, fired bombs and rockets on our heads from the top,” affected person Rasmeya Saleem Abu Jamoos instructed Al Jazeera.
“They demolished the building. We left from the door, and we walked through sewage along with my husband. The Israelis then took my husband, and I lost my two bags. I cannot find them,” she mentioned.
The Israeli army, which used drones and loudspeakers to inform folks to go away Nasser Hospital, mentioned it opened “a secure route” to permit civilians to exit whereas medics and sufferers may stay inside.
Nonetheless, witnesses and the medical NGO Medical doctors With out Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) mentioned these sheltering inside have been afraid to go away after experiences that individuals have been shot at on their approach out. The Israeli military additionally fired on folks contained in the hospital, together with a health care provider and a nurse.
MSF described a “chaotic situation” within the hospital after it was shelled early on Thursday.
“Our medical staff have had to flee the hospital, leaving patients behind,” MSF mentioned on X. It mentioned considered one of its worker is unaccounted for and one other was detained by Israeli forces.
🔴 Gaza replace:
Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, was shelled within the early hours of this morning, regardless of Israeli Forces having instructed medical employees and sufferers they might stay within the facility.
1000’s of displaced folks have been ordered to evacuate it on 13 February…🧵
— MSF Worldwide (@MSF) February 15, 2024
The Israeli military broken two ambulances within the medical compound on Thursday, the Well being Ministry mentioned. Israeli troopers have additionally stormed the maternity ward and have been “sweeping” the realm, it added.
Israeli troopers “threatened those inside with killing and with direct gunfire”, the ministry mentioned.
Ahmed al-Moghrabi, the pinnacle of cosmetic surgery at Nasser Hospital, recorded a message from inside the power when Israel’s evacuation orders got here in.
“[The Israeli army] sent a hostage with cuffed hands into the hospital asking him to tell us that we should evacuate. And when people started really evacuating, they opened fire, and they shot at the people, and they killed the hostage as well,” he mentioned.
Chatting with Al Jazeera late on Wednesday, he mentioned hundreds of individuals, together with critically in poor health sufferers, are being delayed at Israeli checkpoints as they attempt to flee the realm. He additionally described the state of affairs on the hospital as “dangerous”.
Nasser Hospital, the biggest well being facility in southern Gaza, has been underneath siege for round three weeks. The our bodies of a number of folks killed by Israeli sniper hearth within the hospital compound have been mendacity on the bottom for days as a result of it’s too unsafe for employees to succeed in them.
Israeli forces throughout the Gaza Strip have repeatedly besieged and raided hospitals, alleging that the amenities are getting used as command centres by Hamas fighters.
Hamas denies the accusation and the Israeli army has proven no concrete proof of such command centres.
The World Well being Group (WHO) has described Nasser Hospital as a vital facility “for all of Gaza”, the place solely a minority of hospitals are even partly operational.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus mentioned Wednesday that he was “alarmed” by experiences from Nasser Hospital, which he described because the “backbone of the health system in southern Gaza”.
In October, within the first 36 hours of the assault on Gaza, Israel focused Nasser Hospital in addition to the Indonesian Hospital and al-Quds Hospital, killing dozens of healthcare staff. By the top of November, 30 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals had been hit by Israeli rockets. Presently, solely six of Gaza’s hospitals stay partially practical.
The Ministry of Well being in Gaza mentioned no less than 28,663 folks have been killed in Israel’s assaults since October 7, and no less than 68,395 have been wounded.
Israel started the assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters from the territory led assaults on southern Israel, killing no less than 1,139 folks, in line with an Al Jazeera tally primarily based on official Israeli figures.