On the thirty-seventh day of the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli army intensified its bombing of hospitals, targeting in particular the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, the largest health facility in the Gaza Strip.
As a result of the Israeli air strike on Sunday, November 12, the Al-Shifa hospital’s two-storey cardiac department building has been completely destroyed, Youssef Abu Rish, the deputy health minister told AFP.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf Al-Qudra on Sunday told Al Jazeera that Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza is unable to provide medical services due to exhaustion of capabilities, electricity cuts, and being surrounded by tanks by Israeli forces.
Al-Qudra referred to the situation of Al-Shifa Hospital as a “war zone,” stating that the condition of patients in the complex cannot be accurately described.
He added, “The bodies are piled up in and in front of Al-Shifa Hospital, and there is no one to bury them.”
The Gaza health ministry reports that at least three premature infants have died at a hospital, with another 37 at risk of death. Five ICU patients have also died due to a lack of oxygen.
The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed concern after losing communication with its contacts at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital on Sunday.
Taking to X, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean said, “As horrifying reports of the hospital facing repeated attacks continue to emerge, we assume our contacts joined tens of thousands of displaced people and are fleeing the area.”
Earlier on Sunday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the organization, expressed the organization’s deep concern about the safety of health workers, hundreds of sick and injured patients, including babies on life support, and displaced people who remain inside the hospital.
He expressed distress over the repeated attacks on the hospital, citing the presence of Israeli tanks surrounding it.
He said that the organization calls for the swift, efficient, and secure medical evacuation of patients and those suffering from critical injuries.
