Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – At Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical complex, dozens of premature babies are fighting for their lives as the hospital remains under Israeli siege and attack, depriving the medical personnels and desperate patients of basic necessities such as electricity and fuel.
“39 babies who didn’t even get a chance to live, murdered by Israel,” Palestinian-British activist Leanne Mohamad wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Eyewitness accounts on the ground have said Israeli tanks established a siege around the hospital, as well as the al-Quds Hospital and other medical facilities, and have been targeting any “moving objects” near the hospitals.
This has effectively prohibited these facilities from access to essentials such as food, electricity, and water.
Occupation forces are reportedly even directly targeting doctors and patients who attempt to enter or leave the hospital.
“At the time of writing, our staff are witnessing people being shot at as they attempt to flee the Al-Shifa hospital,” Doctors Without Borders wrote on X.
The Palestinian Red Cross added that Israeli tanks are positioned only 20 meters from al-Quds Hospital, directly shooting at the facilities and creating an atmosphere of fear and panic.
Ashraf al-Qudra, who works for the al-Shifa Hospital, told Al Jazeera that its facilities house approximately 20,000 displaced people, who are all now trapped inside.
“There are wounded and dead lying on the ground at the gate of al-Shifa Hospital,” he said, adding that “the Israeli army targets everything that moves in the hospital’s courtyards.”
Read also: WHO: ‘A Child Is Killed Every 10 Minutes in Gaza’
Israel’s ongoing genocidal offensive on the Gaza Strip, which started on October 7, has killed over 11,000 Palestinians so far, including thousands of children. Tens of thousands are also injured with varying severities.
The attacks are continuing to take place amid the complacency and guilty silence of the international community.
Even as the UN and international NGOs warn of an alarming genocide in Gaza, Western powers such as the US have repeatedly dismissed calls for an immediate and total ceasefire to protect Gaza’s over two million residents.
