DUBAI: The World Health Organization (WHO) voiced concern after losing communication with its contacts at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital on Sunday that remains under Israeli siege, fearing for the safety of premature babies on life support, hundreds of sick and injured patients, and health workers.
The health organization believes that these contacts might have joined the tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians fleeing from northern Gaza.
“WHO has lost communication with its contacts in Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza. As horrifying reports of the hospital facing repeated attacks continue to emerge, we assume our contacts joined tens of thousands of displaced people and are fleeing the area,” the Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean said on X.
.@WHO has lost communication with its contacts in Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza. As horrifying reports of the hospital facing repeated attacks continue to emerge, we assume our contacts joined tens of thousands of displaced people and are fleeing the area. pic.twitter.com/SouW2W3cad
— WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (@WHOEMRO) November 12, 2023
A health official said that an Israeli air strike destroyed the cardiac ward of Al-Shifa hospital.
"The occupier (Israel) completely destroyed the cardiac department of Al-Shifa hospital... The two-storey building has been completely destroyed in an air strike," Youssef Abu Rish, deputy health minister told AFP.
The Health Ministry says there are still 1,500 patients at Shifa, along with 1,500 medical personnel and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter. Thousands have fled Shifa and other hospitals that have come under attack, but physicians said it’s impossible for everyone to get out.
The “unbearably desperate situation” at Shifa must stop now, the International Committee of the Red Cross director general, Robert Mardini, said on social media.
Thirteen Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Khan Younis, health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza said on Sunday.
Several people have also been killed and wounded in strikes on a United Nations facility in Gaza City, where hundreds of Palestinians have taken refuge to escape the war, the UN said.
"The shelling has reportedly resulted in a significant number of deaths and injuries," the United Nations Development Programme said in a statement issued late Saturday.
Israel pounds Gaza
Israeli strikes pounded Gaza City overnight and into Sunday as ground forces battled Hamas militants near the territory’s largest hospital, where health officials say thousands of medics, patients and displaced people are trapped with no electricity and dwindling supplies.
In a televised address on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected growing international calls for a ceasefire unless it includes the release of all 239 hostages captured by Hamas in the Oct. 7, saying Israel was bringing its “full force” to the battle.
Israel has come under mounting international pressure, even from its closest ally, the United States, as the war enters a sixth week. A 57-nation gathering of Muslim and Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia on Saturday called for the war to end, and an estimated one million pro-Palestinian protesters marched peacefully through London according to the organisers.
In Gaza City, residents reported heavy airstrikes and shelling overnight, including in the area around Shifa Hospital. Israel, without providing evidence, has accused Hamas of concealing a command post inside and under the hospital compound, allegations denied by Hamas and hospital staff.
“We spent the night in panic waiting for their arrival,” said Ahmed al-Boursh, a resident taking shelter in the hospital. “They are outside, not far from the gates.”
The hospital’s last generator ran out of fuel on Saturday, causing the death of a premature baby, another child in an incubator and four other patients, the health ministry reported.
“Medical devices stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die,” hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said by phone over the sound of gunfire and explosions. He said Israeli troops were “shooting at anyone outside or inside the hospital” and prevented movement between buildings.
