Conditions at Al-Shifa Hospital
Appalling Testament to Israel's Crimes Against Humanity
The world has been held hostage to scenes and eye witness reports of the systematic destruction of the Al-Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza, horrified by the depths of Israel's depravity. On November 18, the World Health Organization (WHO) was able to lead a high-risk joint humanitarian mission to Al-Shifa Hospital after Israel's Defence Forces (IDF) had forced most staff and patients to leave the hospital at gunpoint. The conditions the WHO reported on and what the team saw bring to mind the horrors and unspeakable inhumanity the soldiers who liberated the concentration camps at the end of World War II were confronted with.
The WHO issued a report about the conditions there, the full text of which is posted below.
WHO Statement on Findings at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza
Some of the 179 bodies buried
on November 14, 2023, in a mass grave at the hospital complex, of those
killed by Israel at the hospital, through military assaults or being
deprived of the necessities of life, whose bodies could not be buried
elsewhere due to encirclement by the Israeli military.
Earlier today, a joint UN humanitarian assessment team led by WHO accessed Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza to assess the situation on the ground, conduct a rapid situational analysis, assess medical priorities and establish logistics options for further missions. The team included public health experts, logistics officers and security staff from OCHA [United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs], UNDSS [UN Department for Safety and Security], UNMAS/UNOPS [United Nations Mine Action Service/United Nations Office for Project Services], UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East] and WHO.
The mission was deconflicted with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to ensure safe passage along the agreed route. However, this was a high-risk operation in an active conflict zone, with heavy fighting ongoing in close proximity to the hospital.
Earlier in the day, the IDF had issued evacuation orders to the remaining 2,500 internally displaced people who had been seeking refuge on the hospital grounds. They, along with a number of mobile patients and hospital staff, had already vacated the facility by the time of the team's arrival.
Due to time limits associated with the security situation, the
team was able to spend only one hour inside the hospital, which
they described 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.
Bodies of victims of an Israeli airstrike at the Al-Shifa Hospital on
November 10, 2023 are covered up.
Lack of clean water, fuel, medicines, food and other essential aid over the last 6 weeks have caused Al-Shifa Hospital -- once the largest, most advanced and best equipped referral hospital in Gaza – to essentially stop functioning as a medical facility. 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. 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.
There are 25 health workers and 291 patients remaining in
Al-Shifa, with several patient deaths having occurred over the
previous two to three days due to the shutting down of medical
services. Patients include 32 babies in extremely critical
condition, two 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.
UN and Al-Shifa Hospital staff evacuate premature babies,
November 18, 2023. They had been deprived of incubators for
several days by Israeli attacks and two more babies died that
morning before they could be transferred to another hospital.
Given the current state of the hospital, which is no longer operational or admitting new patients, the team was requested to evacuate health workers and patients to other facilities. WHO and 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. However, these hospitals are already working beyond capacity, and new referrals from Al-Shifa Hospital will further strain overburdened health staff and resources.
WHO 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 north, which are facing the risk of closure due to a lack of fuel, water, medical supplies and food, and the intense hostilities. 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.
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 23 - November 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/MS53231.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca