Israel’s incursion into Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis within the southern Gaza Strip has led to the deaths of at the very least 5 sufferers after electrical energy was severed and oxygen provides lower, in response to Gaza’s Ministry of Well being.
The hospital is presently the most important functioning medical facility in Gaza and had been underneath Israeli siege for weeks.
“We hold the Israeli occupation forces responsible for the lives of patients and staff, considering that the complex is now under their full control,” the ministry stated.
In a press release on Telegram, it added that two ladies gave delivery in “inhumane” situations and Israeli troopers compelled ladies and youngsters to depart the maternity unit with none belongings.
Docs With out Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) stated its employees have additionally been compelled to flee on account of the incursion.
“The Israeli forces set up a checkpoint for people as they left the compound, and one of our colleagues was arrested at this checkpoint. We call for preserving his safety and protecting his dignity,” MSF added.
The Israeli military stated it had arrested greater than 20 “terrorists” primarily based on “intelligence indicating terrorist activity by Hamas in the hospital”.
Reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands stated Daniel Hagari, the spokesman for the Israeli army, alleged that a few of these detained have been concerned within the October 7 assaults inside Israel, together with an ambulance driver.
“The Israeli military also believes there are bodies of Israeli captives somewhere on the grounds of Nasser Hospital, and that is another reason troops are involved in the ‘precise and limited operation’ at the health facility,” Challands stated, including that the army additionally stated it discovered weapons, together with mortars and grenades, amongst individuals arrested.
Hamas has denied any presence inside Nasser Hospital.
“We have repeatedly said the policy of our Palestinian resistance is and remains to distance public and civilian institutions and the health sector from any military activity,” Hamas stated in a press release.
“We have asked the United Nations and relevant organisations on several occasions to bring an international committee to examine the hospitals and prove that Israel’s narrative is a lie. But our demands have not been heard.”
Israel has beforehand claimed that a number of hospitals in Gaza have been used as Hamas bases.
Nevertheless, since destroying massive components of Gaza Metropolis’s al-Shifa Hospital throughout an assault final 12 months, Israeli proof has fallen in need of its claims that the medical facility was used as a Hamas headquarters. The assault led to the deaths of Palestinian sufferers and employees on the hospital in addition to a number of the 1000’s of people that had been sheltering there,
As a substitute, its repeated assaults on hospitals have been described by human rights teams as “unlawful” with Human Rights Watch calling for them to be “investigated as war crimes”, and South Africa alleging on the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague that assaults on Gaza’s healthcare system have been proof of “genocidal acts” dedicated by Israel.
‘We stand helpless’
For sufferers and employees stranded within the hospital raid, the state of affairs is “catastrophic”, in response to Dr Nahed Abu Taima, director of the Nasser Medical Complicated.
“Electric power was cut off from the entire medical complex. Many patients in ICUs and those on oxygen supply and also those on dialysis are left fighting for their lives since 3am [02:00 GMT],” Taima instructed Al Jazeera on Friday.
“We stand helpless, unable to provide any form of medical assistance to the patients inside the hospital or the victims flooding into the hospital every single minute.”
Reporting from Rafah, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud stated the tragedies unfolding on the hospital are additionally “a continuation of the psychological warfare” in opposition to Palestinians, who’re discovering that no place is secure within the Gaza Strip.
The World Well being Group (WHO) stated it’s making an attempt to get entry to Nasser Hospital.
“There is an urgent need to deliver fuel to ensure the continuation of the provision of life-saving services. … We are trying to get access because people who are still in Nasser Medical Complex need assistance,” WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic stated.
“WHO has warned many times that depriving patients of life-saving care and forcing the movement of the sick and injured could lead to the deterioration of their condition or even death. Patients’ health must be prioritised, and uninterrupted care in a safe environment must be ensured,” he added.
Dr James Smith, an emergency room doctor who beforehand labored in Gaza hospitals, stated that what Israel’s army is doing at Nasser Hospital “is a complete neglect of the rules that guide conduct during armed conflict”.
Noting an interim ruling final month from the ICJ that Israel should do all it will probably to forestall genocide in Gaza, Smith instructed Al Jazeera that this additionally means the worldwide neighborhood should do extra to halt Israel’s warfare crimes.
“That [ICJ ruling] places immediate moral, political and legal obligations on all world powers, particularly those that up until this moment continue to finance and provide diplomatic support for the Israeli state.”