A Palestinian examines the body of a victim killed by Israeli shelling outside Al Shifa Hospital. Mohammad Abu Elseba/DPA/AP
as Israel continues Hospitals are on the verge of collapse as the ground invasion of Gaza City begins and calls for a cease-fire six weeks into the war. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced on Sunday that Al-Quds Hospital, one of the main hospitals in northern Gaza, “has ceased to function and is no longer functioning” due to a lack of electricity and fuel. “Medical staff are making every effort to provide care for patients and the injured, including relying on conventional medical methods, amid dire humanitarian conditions and shortages of medicine, food and water.” says the group. statement It added that the facility “has been forced to fend for itself under continuous Israeli shelling, posing serious risks to medical staff, patients and displaced residents.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday that Israel “has designated a route to a safe zone south of Gaza City.” The Israel Defense Forces said it had opened corridors from three hospitals in northern Gaza to allow civilians to evacuate, but the International Committee of the Red Cross could not confirm whether evacuations were taking place. “The loss of civilian life is a tragedy, and I think the responsibility for it should be placed squarely on Hamas,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said.
Thousands of people displaced by the attack have taken refuge in hospitals, which Israeli authorities say Hamas militants are using as shields for military operations. Since the devastating Hamas attack on October 7, which killed around 1,200 Israeli civilians and took more than 200 hostages, around 1.6 million people have been internally displaced in the Gaza Strip, and Gazan authorities have put the death toll at 11,000. It is estimated that it has reached humans.when Asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN that if he were to take responsibility for failing to stop Hamas’ attacks, the issue “will be resolved after the war.”
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this week that Gaza’s “health system is collapsing”, with half of the Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals and two-thirds of its primary health facilities collapsed. I explained that there was. It wasn’t working.
The WHO announced on Sunday that it had lost contact with its contacts at Al Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital. “Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical complex, has reportedly been attacked multiple times over the past 48 hours, leaving several people dead and many injured,” the organization said in a statement. “The intensive care unit was damaged by shelling, as were areas of the hospital where evacuees were being evacuated. Patients who had been intubated were reportedly left unattended due to electricity being cut off at one point. died.”
Al Shifa’s Doctor Said CBS’ Marwan Al Ghoul said there were more than 100 unburied bodies inside the hospital.
A doctor at Shifa Hospital in Gaza said the smell of death was everywhere.There are over 100 bodies in the hospital and no place to bury them. pic.twitter.com/R7wHQY3Rjb
— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) November 12, 2023
As the humanitarian crisis worsens, Prime Minister Netanyahu has rejected growing international calls for a ceasefire without releasing all hostages. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators rallied in London this weekend to protest Israel’s military offensive on Gaza.