‘WE WERE forced to bury them in a mass grave,’ al-Shifa Hospital Director Mohammad Abu Salmiya reported yesterday as he announced that 179 people, including seven babies and 29 intensive care patients, had been buried in the complex.
Orthopaedic surgeon Fadel Naim said patients with injuries ‘up to the moderate level’ are having to undergo surgery without anaesthesia because of a lack of medical supplies.
‘It’s to preserve the remaining supply of anaesthesia, which is on the verge of depletion at any moment, for major and critical surgeries. The pain experienced by the patients during the surgical interventions without anaesthesia is beyond what humanity on this Earth can endure.’
Ghassan Abu Sitta, a surgeon at al-Shifa Hospital, said more than 20 people have sought treatment for ‘chest and neck’ gunshot wounds from Israeli quadcopter drones. ‘This is a low-flying sniper drone. When it comes to killing, they are so innovative,’ he said.
Palestinian Authority Minister of Health Mai Al-Kaila said: ‘The medical staff inside al-Shifa Hospital cannot move between the medical complex’s departments and buildings, as an Israeli drone fires at everyone who moves inside the complex.’
In a new report, Human Rights Watch said the Israeli military’s ‘unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel and transport are further destroying Gaza’s healthcare system and should be investigated as war crimes.’
The organisation urged the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and the International Criminal Court to investigate.
‘Despite the Israeli military’s claims on November 5th, 2023, of “Hamas’s cynical use of hospitals”, no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law,’ it said.
Israel and Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, have been engaging in fierce urban combat around Gaza City. The armed wing of Hamas said on Monday that it has told Qatari mediators it is ready to release up to 70 women and children held in Gaza in return for a five-day truce with Israel.
‘Last week there was an effort from the Qatari brothers to release the enemy captives from women and children, in return for the release of 200 Palestinian children and 75 women detained by the enemy,’ Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades said.
‘The truce should include a complete ceasefire and allow aid and humanitarian relief everywhere in the Gaza Strip,’ he added, accusing Israel of ‘procrastinating.’
