The effort to evacuate young cancer patients from Gaza was desperate
Gaza’s largest hospital — a flash point in the Gaza war, according to Israeli health officials: “The situation is changing rapidly”, Israel told TELAVIV
TEL AVIV, Israel — Gaza’s largest hospital reports that it has buried more than 100 people in a mass grave, as it says bodies decompose in its courtyard and babies are dying because their incubators have no power.
The conditions at Al-Shifa Hospital, and other medical facilities in Gaza, are worsening to new unimaginable levels, according to health officials and humanitarian groups on the ground.
Paul Caney, the group’s emergency coordinators, said that they did not have electricity. “People are staying in the corridors because of sniper fire near the windows and that they cannot move any of the patients to ambulances.”
Hospitals have become a particular flash point in the war as Israel has accused Hamas of turning medical facilities, including Al-Rantisi and Al-Shifa, into safe houses and command centers. The allegations were denied by Hamas and hospital officials.
More than 11 200 Palestinians have died in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the year. The death toll has been rising as Israel continues its siege on the region. The health officials said that there are challenges in updating the tally for the third day in a row due to service and communication disruptions.
Other injured patients and displaced Palestinians are crowded into hospitals in the north because of the continued fighting.
Israel says it has focused on some hospitals in Gaza because it says Hamas is operating from military facilities underneath them, an allegation Hamas denies.
According to the Israeli military, there are Hamas tunnels under Al-Rantisi Hospital. Israeli military officials said that they found weapons under the hospital, which they said is evidence of Hamas’ operations there.
Gaza health officials said the basement was “included in the design of the hospital and includes the administration and hospital stores. People who have left the bombing are now at a shelter in the hospital.
The children of Gaza are lucky to be safe: A microcosm of the suffering in Gaza since Hamas unleashed a surprise assault
The youngest is a year older than the oldest. All are battling lymphoma, leukemia and tumors that doctors said could kill them if left untreated.
The effort to evacuate children with cancer began in mid-October and required negotiations among the White House, Egypt, Israel and Palestinian health officials in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.
The families who lost cell service and missed the days their children were allowed to cross into Egypt were described by aid workers and doctors, who spoke on condition of anonymity. A lot of people waited for hours for the ambulances that never arrived.
The parent of a child was left off of the list as the family arrived at the border.
The children’s plight is a microcosm of the suffering in Gaza since the war began just over a month ago, after Hamas launched a surprise assault that Israeli authorities say killed 1,200 people. According to health officials in Gaza, more than 11,000 people have been killed by Israel.
According to Dr. Gaoud, staff members dragged some patients out of their beds in order to wait for ambulances on Friday. Israeli soldiers provided a map of what they said was a safe route through the fighting.
The World Health Organization and a hospital helped to evacuate patients from Al-Rantisi.
The names of the children were added to a daily list of those that were allowed to cross the border into Egypt. More than two weeks passed with no evacuations.
Gaza’s largest hospital has reported that it has buried more than 100 people in a mass grave, as it says bodies decompose in its courtyard and babies are dying because their incubators have no power. The conditions at Al-Shifa Hospital and other medical facilities in Gaza are worsening to new unimaginable levels, health officials and humanitarian groups on the ground said.