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 ability for weeks, isolating hundreds of sufferers, medical employees and displaced households – lots of whom stay trapped inside. Verified video footage confirmed those that tried to flee on Thursday got here beneath 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 individuals into an previous constructing on the medical centre beneath “harsh circumstances” with out water, meals or milk for the youngsters.
“The Nasser Medical Advanced is witnessing a catastrophic, worrying scenario due to the dwindling medical capability as gasoline is ready to expire within the subsequent 24 hours, which straight threatens the lives of sufferers, together with six on respirators in intensive care and three youngsters in incubators,” al-Qudra mentioned in a press release.
The Israeli military accused Hamas of utilizing the medical compound to carry captives, but it surely hasn’t offered 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’s blind. I used to be doing kidney dialysis. They destroyed the partitions surrounding us in addition to the physician’s room. They ordered us to depart and fired at us, fired bombs and rockets on our heads from the highest,” affected person Rasmeya Saleem Abu Jamoos advised Al Jazeera.
“They demolished the constructing. We left from the door, and we walked by sewage together with my husband. The Israelis then took my husband, and I misplaced my two luggage. I can’t discover them,” she mentioned.
The Israeli navy, which used drones and loudspeakers to inform individuals to depart Nasser Hospital, mentioned it opened “a safe route” to permit civilians to exit whereas medics and sufferers might stay inside.
Nevertheless, witnesses and the medical NGO Docs With out Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) mentioned these sheltering inside have been afraid to depart after reviews that individuals have been shot at on their method out. The Israeli military additionally fired on individuals contained in the hospital, together with a health care provider and a nurse.
MSF described a “chaotic scenario” within the hospital after it was shelled early on Thursday.
“Our medical employees have needed to flee the hospital, leaving sufferers behind,” MSF mentioned on X. It mentioned one among 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 advised medical employees and sufferers they might stay within the facility.
Hundreds of displaced individuals 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 world, it added.
Israeli troopers “threatened these inside with killing and with direct gunfire”, the ministry mentioned.
Ahmed al-Moghrabi, the top of cosmetic surgery at Nasser Hospital, recorded a message from inside the ability when Israel’s evacuation orders got here in.
“[The Israeli army] despatched a hostage with cuffed palms into the hospital asking him to inform us that we must always evacuate. And when individuals began actually evacuating, they opened hearth, they usually shot on the individuals, they usually killed the hostage as effectively,” he mentioned.
Talking to 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 world. He additionally described the scenario on the hospital as “harmful”.
Nasser Hospital, the biggest well being facility in southern Gaza, has been beneath siege for round three weeks. The our bodies of a number of individuals 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 achieve them.
Israeli forces throughout the Gaza Strip have repeatedly besieged and raided hospitals, alleging that the services are getting used as command centres by Hamas fighters.
Hamas denies the accusation and the Israeli navy has proven no concrete proof of such command centres.
The World Well being Group (WHO) has described Nasser Hospital as a important 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 reviews from Nasser Hospital, which he described because the “spine of the well being 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 useful.
The Ministry of Well being in Gaza mentioned at the very least 28,663 individuals have been killed in Israel’s assaults since October 7, and at the very least 68,395 have been wounded.
Israel started the assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters from the territory led assaults on southern Israel, killing at the very least 1,139 individuals, based on an Al Jazeera tally based mostly on official Israeli figures.
