A United Nations (UN) humanitarian assessment team led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has described the largest hospital in Gaza as a death zone due to persistent Israeli attacks on it.
The team, comprising public health experts, logistics officers and security staff from the UN agencies, visited Al-Shifa Hospital on Saturday to assess the situation on the ground, conduct a rapid situational analysis, assess medical priorities and establish logistics options for further missions.
The team said it found that the hospital has essentially stopped functioning as a medical facility over the last few weeks as a result of the lack of clean water, fuel, medicines, food and other essential aid.
Al-Shifa Hospital is the largest, most advanced and best-equipped referral hospital in Gaza, it noted.
“The team observed that due to the security situation, it has been impossible for the staff to carry out effective waste management in the hospital,” the WHO said in a statement.
“Corridors and the hospital grounds were filled with medical and solid waste, increasing the risk of infection. Patients and health staff with whom they spoke were terrified for their safety and health and pleaded for evacuation. Al-Shifa Hospital can no longer admit patients, with the injured and sick now being directed to the seriously overwhelmed and barely functioning Indonesian Hospital.”
The WHO said the hospital currently has only 25 health workers and 291 patients remaining, “with several patient deaths having occurred over the previous 2 to 3 days due to the shutting down of medical services.”
It said the patients include 32 babies in extremely critical condition, 2 people in intensive care without ventilation, and 22 dialysis patients whose access to life-saving treatment has been severely compromised.
“The vast majority of patients are victims of war trauma, including many with complex fractures and amputations, head injuries, burns, chest and abdominal trauma, and 29 patients with serious spinal injuries who are unable to move without medical assistance. Many trauma patients have severely infected wounds due to lack of infection control measures in the hospital and unavailability of antibiotics,” it added.
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Although the team’s mission was deconflicted with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to ensure safe passage along the agreed route, WHO said it was a high-risk operation in an active conflict zone, with heavy fighting ongoing near the hospital.
The IDF had on Saturday, issued evacuation orders to the remaining 2500 internally displaced people who had been seeking refuge on the hospital grounds.
But the displaced persons, along with many mobile patients and hospital staff, had already vacated the facility by the time of the team’s arrival, the UN team said.
It added that it was only able to spend an hour inside the hospital because of the time limits associated with the security situation.
It described the scene as a “death zone,” and the situation as “desperate.”
“Signs of shelling and gunfire were evident. The team saw a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and was told more than 80 people were buried there,” it said.
WHO, partners plan evacuation
The World Health Organisation said its partners are “urgently developing plans for the immediate” evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families.
“Over the next 24–72 hours, pending guarantees of safe passage by parties to the conflict, additional missions are being arranged to urgently transport patients from Al-Shifa to Nasser Medical Complex and European Gaza Hospital in the south of Gaza,” it said.
The WHO added, however, that the referred hospitals are already working beyond capacity, and the new referrals from Al-Shifa Hospital will further strain overburdened health staff and resources.
It noted that the global health body is “deeply concerned” about the safety and health needs of patients, health workers and internally displaced people sheltering at the few remaining partially functional hospitals in the region currently facing the risk of closure owing to a lack of fuel, water, medical supplies and food, and the intense hostilities.
WHO said immediate efforts must be made to restore the functionality of Al-Shifa and all other hospitals to provide urgently needed health services in Gaza.
“WHO reiterates its plea for collective efforts to bring an end to the hostilities and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. We call for an immediate ceasefire, the sustained flow of humanitarian assistance at scale, unhindered humanitarian access to all of those in need, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the cessation of attacks on health care and other vital infrastructure. The extreme suffering of the people of Gaza demands that we respond immediately and concretely with humanity and compassion,” it said.
Since the war in Gaza broke out with Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October and the latter’s indiscriminate shelling of northern Gaza, more than 11,000 Palestinians have died, thousands missing and hundreds of thousands displaced.
Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe
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