Here’s the latest.
Fighting between Israel and Hamas has reached deep into Gaza City, threatening the healthcare facilities that have treated and provided refuge for thousands throughout the conflict. Now, humanitarian groups warn Gaza’s hospitals are reaching a breaking point. Here’s what we know about this tragic situation, and how world leaders are reacting.
What’s happening at Al-Shifa?
Israel claims that Hamas is using healthcare facilities like the Al-Shifa hospital to shield its military operations, including underground complexes and, in the case of Al-Shifa, a key command center.
“The ultimate goal is for them to come out and surrender while we’re in the vicinity of the hospital,” said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an IDF spokesman, referring to Hamas militants. “We haven’t gone in yet.”
Hamas says this claim is false, and has denied accusations of preventing vital reserves from reaching hospitals.
Over the past few days, the areas immediately surrounding Gaza’s hospitals have become battlegrounds. The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, told the New York Times that the hospital went dark over the weekend. The ministry and the hospital director said the outages led to the death of at least one premature baby in an incubator and four other patients.
“Surgeries have had to stop,” the hospital’s director, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, told the Times. “Kidney dialysis has stopped and the neonatal unit is in a very dire situation. A baby has died because of lack of oxygen and electricity and heat.”
Israel’s military has said that it placed 300 liters of fuel for the hospital’s generators near the facility, but that it hasn’t been taken yet. A spokesperson for the military said that if the fuel doesn’t work, they will seek “other solutions for the babies,” per the Associated Press.
A spokesperson for the Gaza Health Ministry told Al Jazeera that the hospital was contacted about receiving 200 liters of fuel, which “gives less than an hour to run the generator.”
“This is a mockery towards the patients and children,” the spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, said.
The Israeli military has said that troops would provide a safe passage for the thousands of people inside Al-Shifa to evacuate. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN that “100 or so” have. But multiple people, including a doctor at the hospital, told the Times that some people who tried to leave on Saturday were shot at by snipers they believed to be Israeli troops.
Meanwhile, Gaza City’s second largest hospital, Al-Quds, is “no longer operational,” the Palestinian Red Crescent declared Sunday. The humanitarian organization said that Israeli tanks and military vehicles were shelling the complex, which had also run out of fuel for its generators.
The international response
On Sunday, the European Union condemned Hamas for using “hospitals and civilians as human shields” in Gaza and urged Israel to show “maximum restraint to ensure the protection of civilians.”
Over the weekend, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC’s This Week, “We do not want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, people seeking medical care are caught in the crossfire.”
Sullivan declined to weigh in on Israel’s claim that Hamas is using Al-Shifa as a command post, but he did say the group has a track record of doing so.
He added that “open source information,” indicates “that Hamas uses lots of different civilian institutions, including hospitals, to store weapons, for command and control, to house its fighters.”
“We have seen that throughout the time that Hamas has been operating in Gaza. We have seen that in this conflict. And that’s a violation of the laws of war, taking civilians as human shields, using hospitals for military purposes,” he said.
The regional directors of the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and United Nations Population Fund in a statement have called for an end to the “ongoing attacks on hospitals in Gaza.”
“The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair,” the statement reads. “Decisive international action is needed now to secure an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and prevent further loss of life, and preserve what’s left of the health care system in Gaza.”
