CAIRO: Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital is providing only basic trauma stabilization, has no blood for transfusions and hardly any staff to care for a constant flow of patients, the World Health Organization said on Sunday.
After a UN visit to deliver medicines and surgical supplies, the team described the emergency department in the enclave’s main health facility as resembling a “bloodbath.”
The WHO said there were hundreds of wounded patients, with new ones arriving by the minute and trauma injuries being stitched on the floor, with almost no pain management available.
Only four hospitals of 24 working in north Gaza before the war with Israel began have even partial service, and three of those are barely functioning, the WHO said.
The WHO said it was urgently gathering information at the Kamal Adwan hospital, where Gazan authorities said Israeli forces this week used a bulldozer to smash through the perimeter of a site Israel has said was used by Hamas fighters.
The group which governs Gaza has denied using the Kamal Adwan or other hospitals for militant activities.
Israel has also said Al Shifa, which it had occupied earlier in the war, had been used by Hamas.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians are believed to remain in north Gaza, after Israelis forces pushed most of the population to the south during the first days of the bombing campaign and ground war that began after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
Gazan health authorities under the Hamas government say that more than 50,000 Palestinians have been injured during the Israeli operation, and 19,000 killed.
The WHO said “tens of thousands” of displaced people were using the Al Shifa hospital for shelter, describing severe shortages of safe water and food.
Gaza is home to 2.3 million people, most of whom have been displaced from their homes by the offensive.
Kamal Adwan
At the Kamal Adwan hospital, the Gazan health ministry said Israeli troops made hundreds of internally displaced persons leave, and evacuated wounded patients and medical staff to the hospital grounds.
Citing the ministry’s reports, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “extremely worried” about the situation.
The Israeli military said the hospital had been used as a Hamas “command and control center” and that soldiers had detained around 80 militant fighters before leaving the site on Saturday. Gazan authorities said some 70 medical staff were detained by Israel, including the head of the hospital.
Video obtained by Reuters showed two bodies in shrouds, an injured boy along with a wrecked car, smashed and burnt walls and piles of abandoned belongings at the hospital. Reuters could not determine the cause of the fatalities or the injuries.
“They raided the building, and they took all the employees for investigation, also the injured people were being investigated,” said Ahmed Al Kahlot, a doctor at the hospital.
The military released video on Saturday it said showed soldiers shooting at the hospital, finding weapons hidden in medical apparatus, and displaying several guns and grenades.
Reuters could not independently verify the accounts.
Reuters was also unable to verify reports, including from the Palestinian health minister Mai AlKaila, citing witnesses who claimed civilians were buried under earth moved by Israeli army bulldozers in the vicinity of the hospital.
Gazan health official Munir Al-Bursh demanded an international investigation into what he called a “deliberate crime” by Israel at the Kamal Adwan hospital.
Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the allegations.
Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital a ‘bloodbath’ says WHO
https://arab.news/zecmn
Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital a ‘bloodbath’ says WHO
- After a UN visit to deliver supplies, team described the emergency department in the enclave’s main health facility as resembling a “bloodbath”
Tunisia’s famed blue-and-white village threatened after record rains
- The one-time home of French philosopher Michel Foucault and writer Andre Gide, the village is protected under Tunisian preservation law, pending a UNESCO decision on its bid for World Heritage status
SIDI BOU SAID, Tunisia: Perched on a hill overlooking Carthage, Tunisia’s famed blue-and-white village of Sidi Bou Said now faces the threat of landslides, after record rainfall tore through parts of its slopes.
Last week, Tunisia saw its heaviest downpour in more than 70 years. The storm killed at least five people, with others still missing.
Narrow streets of this village north of Tunis — famed for its pink bougainvillea and studded wooden doors — were cut off by fallen trees, rocks and thick clay. Even more worryingly for residents, parts of the hillside have broken loose.
“The situation is delicate” and “requires urgent intervention,” Mounir Riabi, the regional director of civil defense in Tunis, recently told AFP.
“Some homes are threatened by imminent danger,” he said.
Authorities have banned heavy vehicles from driving into the village and ordered some businesses and institutions to close, such as the Ennejma Ezzahra museum.
- Scared -
Fifty-year-old Maya, who did not give her full name, said she was forced to leave her century-old family villa after the storm.
“Everything happened very fast,” she recalled. “I was with my mother and, suddenly, extremely violent torrents poured down.”
“I saw a mass of mud rushing toward the house, then the electricity cut off. I was really scared.”
Her Moorish-style villa sustained significant damage.
One worker on site, Said Ben Farhat, said waterlogged earth sliding from the hillside destroyed part of a kitchen wall.
“Another rainstorm and it will be a catastrophe,” he said.
Shop owners said the ban on heavy vehicles was another blow to their businesses, as they usually rely on tourist buses to bring in traffic.
When President Kais Saied visited the village on Wednesday, vendors were heard shouting: “We want to work.”
One trader, Mohamed Fedi, told AFP afterwards there were “no more customers.”
“We have closed shop,” he said, adding that the shops provide a livelihood to some 200 families.
- Highly unstable -
Beyond its famous architecture, the village also bears historical and spiritual significance.
The village was named after a 12th-century Sufi saint, Abu Said Al-Baji, who had established a religious center there. His shrine still sits atop the hill.
The one-time home of French philosopher Michel Foucault and writer Andre Gide, the village is protected under Tunisian preservation law, pending a UNESCO decision on its bid for World Heritage status.
Experts say solutions to help preserve Sidi Bou Said could include restricting new development, building more retaining walls and improving drainage to prevent runoff from accumulating.
Chokri Yaich, a geologist speaking to Tunisian radio Mosaique FM, said climate change has made protecting the hill increasingly urgent, warning of more storms like last week’s.
The hill’s clay-rich soil loses up to two thirds of its cohesion when saturated with water, making it highly unstable, Yaich explained.
He also pointed to marine erosion and the growing weight of urbanization, saying that construction had increased by about 40 percent over the past three decades.
For now, authorities have yet to announce a protection plan, leaving home and shop owners anxious, as the weather remains unpredictable.
