Witnesses describe fear and misery in a besieged Gaza hospital

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Seven days after the Israeli military launched an airstrike on Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, a fragmented picture of the continued attack on the complex and its surroundings is emerging.

Residents in the nearby area described a constant each day soundtrack of gunfire, airstrikes and explosions. The surgeon spoke of doctors and patients gathered in the emergency department while Israeli forces took control of the compound outside. A Palestinian teenager who spent 4 days in hospital described the bodies she saw piling up outside the doorway.

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“They put the bodies aside and covered them with blankets,” said 18-year-old Alaa Abu Al-Kaaf, who said she and her family stayed in Al-Shifa for several days before leaving on Thursday. It was not immediately clear when or how the bodies were transported there.

Interviews with other witnesses on the hospital, residents in or near the ability, and Gaza authorities conducted in recent days, in addition to with others who left the compound over the past week, described a situation of fear and deprivation, interrogation and detention of Palestinian men by Israeli forces, and persistent lack of food and water.

The attack on Al-Shifa, certainly one of the longest Israeli hospital raids through the Gaza war, began on Monday with tanks, bulldozers and airstrikes. The military said its targets were senior officials of Hamas, the armed group that led an Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. Israel launched a war in Gaza in response to this attack, with intense air bombardment and a ground offensive.

In recent weeks, mediators have redoubled their efforts to achieve a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, organizing indirect talks between the 2 sides in Doha. Qatar, a key mediator, expressed cautious optimism but said the talks had not yet reached a breakthrough.

Israeli leaders have said that no matter whether a ceasefire agreement is reached, they intend to launch a ground operation in the southern city of Rafah to root out remaining Hamas forces there. The prospect has raised international concern for the fate of greater than a million Palestinians who’ve crowded into the realm searching for refuge.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III recently “raised the need to consider alternatives to a major ground operation in Rafah” during a telephone call along with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant. Mr. Gallant is traveling to Washington on Sunday to satisfy with Mr. Austin and other top U.S. officials, his office said.

According to local authorities, the raid on Al-Shifa also drew international attention to the dire situation of hospitals and the patients staying there. Many of the 30,000 Palestinians whom Gaza’s Health Ministry said were hiding in Al-Shifa were displaced again by the airstrike.

Gaza authorities said a minimum of 13 patients died in the airstrike because they were deprived of drugs and treatment or when their ventilators stopped working after Israelis cut off electricity. These claims couldn’t be verified.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported on Saturday that the condition of patients in Al-Shifa stays critical and that their wounds have gotten infected with worms.

Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, published the report on social media from a doctor from Al-Shifa, as reported by a colleague from the United Nations.

Two patients connected to life support died as a consequence of a lack of electricity, in addition to a lack of medicines and basic medical supplies, he wrote. Many critical patients were lying on the ground.

Since the second day of the raid, 50 medical employees and over 140 patients have been held in one constructing, with very limited access to food, water and one non-functioning toilet, Dr. Tedros wrote.

“Health care workers are concerned about their safety and that of their patients.” Doctor Tedros wrote. “These conditions are completely inhumane. We call for an immediate end to the siege and appeal for safe access to ensure patients receive the care they need.”

Dr. Tayseer al-Tanna, 54, a vascular surgeon, said he finally escaped from Al-Shifa on Thursday after hearing gunshots outside the ward where he was staying for days. Dr. Al-Tanna said Israeli forces gathered doctors and patients in the complex’s emergency room while they swept the realm outside.

“The Israeli military did not treat us brutally,” Dr. Al-Tanna said. “But during the invasion, we had almost no food and water,” he added.

He declined to comment on whether Palestinian fighters had entrenched themselves in the medical complex.

The press office of the territory’s government, run by Hamas, said in a statement Saturday that the Israeli military threatened medical staff and people hiding in the hospital to depart the hospital – risking interrogation, torture or execution – or the military would bomb and destroy the buildings above their heads. The press office reported that it was in contact with the residents of the complex.

The Israeli military didn’t reply to specific questions on whether it threatened people on the medical complex. But on Saturday it said it was operating throughout the hospital premises, “avoiding harm to civilians, patients, medical teams and medical equipment.”

The military said it killed greater than 170 militants in the hospital area and greater than 800 people were detained and interrogated.

The New York Times was unable to confirm either the Hamas or Israeli military reports.

Israel has long accused Hamas of using Al-Shifa and other Gaza hospitals as command centers and of hiding weapons in underground tunnels beneath them, which the armed Palestinian group and hospital administrators have previously denied.

In a statement on Sunday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces were “besieging” two more hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younis, Al-Amal and Nasser.

The Israeli military targeted Al-Amal with smoke bombs and military vehicles barricaded entrances to the complex, the Red Crescent said.

The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry said the Israeli attack on Nasser Hospital was “brutal and bloody” and accused the military of attempting to incapacitate all hospitals in Gaza.

In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military said it had launched an operation in the Al-Amal neighborhood of Khan Younis overnight. When asked whether the Israeli military was currently encircling Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals, the military replied that it was “operating in the entire Al Amal area” and was “not currently operating in hospitals.”

In statements regarding the Al-Shifa raid, Hamas confirmed that its fighters were involved in clashes with Israeli forces near the hospital. In one statement Saturday, Hamas said members of the Qassam Brigades fired mortar shells at Israeli forces near Al-Shifa.

Ms. Al-Kaaf and other Palestinians who left the compound over the past week also described scenes of Israeli soldiers detaining, stripping and interrogating groups of men. According to Ms. Al-Kaaf, women and children were separated from men, and other people – including hospital medical staff, doctors and nurses – were kept in a large pit, sitting on the bottom. Some were blindfolded and handcuffed.

The Israeli military said that “individuals suspected of involvement in terrorist activities” are detained and interrogated in accordance with international law, and then released if “they are found not to be involved in terrorist activities.” He added: “Often, suspected terrorists must hand over their clothes so they can be searched to ensure they are not concealing explosive vests or other weapons.”

For residents of the Al-Rimal neighborhood that surrounds Al-Shifa, the hospital siege has trapped residents in their homes. Several said snipers were shooting into the encircling streets; residents feared that Israeli forces might drag them from their homes, strip them and interrogate them, dozens have said over the past week.

“The situation is really bad,” said Mohammed Haddad, 25, who lives about a half-mile from the hospital. “We haven’t been able to go out and move around for over five days. We weren’t able to get water, get food. And it is Ramadan,” he said, referring to the holy month of fasting for Muslims.

Airstrikes and random cannon fire hit many homes in the immediate vicinity, destroying them, Haddad said.

“There are snipers, gunfire, surveillance drones and armed drones,” he added, and a drone may very well be heard buzzing as he spoke on the phone.

“It looked like Israeli forces were destroying the entire area,” he said, “not just the hospital.”

Ravan Sheikh Ahmad AND Aaron Boxerman reporting contributed.

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