There have been scenes of chaos and panic at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis as Israeli forces stormed the medical facility within the southern Gaza Strip and Palestinians tried to evacuate.
The Israeli military has besieged the power for weeks, isolating hundreds of sufferers, medical employees and displaced households – lots of whom stay trapped inside. Verified video footage confirmed those that tried to flee on Thursday got here beneath assault after leaving the hospital.
Gaza Ministry of Well being spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra stated Israeli troops have been forcing 95 medics, 191 sufferers and 165 displaced individuals into an outdated constructing on the medical centre beneath “harsh circumstances” with out water, meals or milk for the kids.
“The Nasser Medical Complicated is witnessing a catastrophic, worrying state of affairs due to the dwindling medical capability as gasoline is ready to expire within the subsequent 24 hours, which immediately threatens the lives of sufferers, together with six on respirators in intensive care and three kids in incubators,” al-Qudra stated in an announcement.
The Israeli military accused Hamas of utilizing the medical compound to carry captives, however it hasn’t supplied proof for the declare. The Palestinian group, which governs Gaza, has vehemently denied it.
The raid has displaced sufferers and medical employees who spoke of terrifying and strenuous circumstances.
“I left with my husband, who’s blind. I used to be doing kidney dialysis. They destroyed the partitions surrounding us in addition to the physician’s room. They ordered us to go away and fired at us, fired bombs and rockets on our heads from the highest,” affected person Rasmeya Saleem Abu Jamoos instructed Al Jazeera.
“They demolished the constructing. We left from the door, and we walked via sewage together with my husband. The Israelis then took my husband, and I misplaced my two luggage. I can’t discover them,” she stated.
The Israeli army, which used drones and loudspeakers to inform individuals to go away Nasser Hospital, stated it opened “a safe route” to permit civilians to exit whereas medics and sufferers might stay inside.
Nonetheless, witnesses and the medical NGO Docs With out Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) stated these sheltering inside have been afraid to go away after reviews that folks have been shot at on their means out. The Israeli military additionally fired on individuals contained in the hospital, together with a health care provider and a nurse.
MSF described a “chaotic state of affairs” within the hospital after it was shelled early on Thursday.
“Our medical employees have needed to flee the hospital, leaving sufferers behind,” MSF stated on X. It stated one in all its worker is unaccounted for and one other was detained by Israeli forces.
🔴 Gaza replace:
Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, was shelled within the early hours of this morning, regardless of Israeli Forces having instructed medical employees and sufferers they might stay within the facility.
Hundreds of displaced individuals have been ordered to evacuate it on 13 February…🧵
— MSF Worldwide (@MSF) February 15, 2024
The Israeli military broken two ambulances within the medical compound on Thursday, the Well being Ministry stated. Israeli troopers have additionally stormed the maternity ward and have been “sweeping” the world, it added.
Israeli troopers “threatened these inside with killing and with direct gunfire”, the ministry stated.
Ahmed al-Moghrabi, the top of cosmetic surgery at Nasser Hospital, recorded a message from inside the power when Israel’s evacuation orders got here in.
“[The Israeli army] despatched a hostage with cuffed palms into the hospital asking him to inform us that we must always evacuate. And when individuals began actually evacuating, they opened fireplace, and so they shot on the individuals, and so they killed the hostage as effectively,” he stated.
Chatting with Al Jazeera late on Wednesday, he stated hundreds of individuals, together with critically unwell sufferers, are being delayed at Israeli checkpoints as they attempt to flee the world. He additionally described the state of affairs on the hospital as “harmful”.
Nasser Hospital, the biggest well being facility in southern Gaza, has been beneath siege for round three weeks. The our bodies of a number of individuals killed by Israeli sniper fireplace within the hospital compound have been mendacity on the bottom for days as a result of it’s too unsafe for workers to succeed in them.
Israeli forces throughout the Gaza Strip have repeatedly besieged and raided hospitals, alleging that the services are getting used as command centres by Hamas fighters.
Hamas denies the accusation and the Israeli army has proven no concrete proof of such command centres.
The World Well being Group (WHO) has described Nasser Hospital as a crucial facility “for all of Gaza”, the place solely a minority of hospitals are even partly operational.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated Wednesday that he was “alarmed” by reviews from Nasser Hospital, which he described because the “spine of the well being system in southern Gaza”.
In October, within the first 36 hours of the assault on Gaza, Israel focused Nasser Hospital in addition to the Indonesian Hospital and al-Quds Hospital, killing dozens of healthcare employees. By the tip of November, 30 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals had been hit by Israeli rockets. Presently, solely six of Gaza’s hospitals stay partially practical.
The Ministry of Well being in Gaza stated at the least 28,663 individuals have been killed in Israel’s assaults since October 7, and at the least 68,395 have been wounded.
Israel started the assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters from the territory led assaults on southern Israel, killing at the least 1,139 individuals, in keeping with an Al Jazeera tally based mostly on official Israeli figures.
