The Israeli army’s withdrawal from the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City has left behind a scene of devastation and emotional messages from Palestinians who experienced the two-week siege of the medical complex.
The hospital, which was once the largest provider of healthcare in Gaza, was turned into a graveyard with bodies decomposing all around and survivors screaming in horror, “Why God, why?”
The pain and hopelessness of the Palestinians are reflected in the poignant messages scrawled on the walls of Al-Shifa Hospital. “We will never forget what they did to us,” one such message reads.
“We will never be able to forget them. We will keep fighting for our rights and freedom,” reads another message. “The world is watching, but the world is silent. We will not be silent. We will scream until we are heard,” reads another message on the walls of the hospital.
The destruction of Al-Shifa Hospital has left the people of Gaza without access to healthcare, creating conditions calculated to destroy the distressed and traumatised population.
People with chronic medical conditions as well as injuries from various military arsenals were among the patients in the hospital complex. This led to a complex medical situation and an incapacity to treat the devastating consequences that followed, such as crushing tissue or organ injuries, repairing fractures or dislocations, or controlling bleeding.
Many people have experienced shock, impairment, and finally death from their injuries as a result of the hospital’s inability to offer essential medical care.
The hospital was destroyed beyond repair, medical personnel were killed, hundreds of people were imprisoned, and residences were set afire as a result of the siege. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 25 people were killed in a single attack that occurred overnight near four hospitals that were crowded with patients and displaced residents.
Although Israel insisted that the Al-Shifa facility was evacuated, Mohammed Abu Selmia, the institution’s director, said there was nowhere for such a huge number of patients to go. Thousands of injured people poured into the hospital, which was running on very little electricity and medical supplies.
Children’s lifeless bodies were shown on stretchers across blood-stained hospital floors in a video posted by the Gaza Health Ministry. Some of the children were dead, and others were barely breathing. Other patients were strewn around the floor, unable to be treated for lack of supplies.
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