Israeli forces gave doctors, patients and displaced people at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza one hour to evacuate the medical compound on Saturday, causing “a great state of panic and fear”, Al Jazeera’s Youmna ElSayed reported.
A medical source in al-Shifa told Al Jazeera it was “impossible” to evacuate as the facility, which has been bombarded and besieged by Israeli troops for days, houses about 7,000 people, including patients who are in critical condition.
“They do not have any ambulances to transfer the patients and premature babies to the south [of Gaza],” said ElSayed, reporting from Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
“This is what he [the source] called ‘a crisis’, to ask them to evacuate in one hour.”
Those in al-Shifa include at least 300 patients, some or most of them in serious or critical condition, as well as thousands of displaced families.
It also includes “at least 35 premature babies who already for eight days now have been out of their incubators because of the lack of oxygen and the lack of electricity”, ElSayed said. There were 39 babies who had been left without incubators; four died late on Friday and five are severely ill now, our correspondent added.
“There is no transportation means in Gaza City and the northern parts because of a lack of fuel. So people are expected to evacuate on foot. And doctors are telling us it’s impossible to evacuate with this many people on foot.”
After the Israeli deadline passed, and ElSayed said doctors have told the Israeli army that they will not evacuate and abandon their patients, and none of the displaced families inside the hospital have so far left.
She said the medical professionals have said “as long as the Israeli army does not provide ambulances to transport these patients out of al-Shifa, there will be no evacuation made by patients or doctors who will not leave their patients behind” and added that the Israeli army has not responded to the doctors.
The Israeli army instructed people to evacuate through al-Rashid street, “not the usual street or route that people evacuating to the south are supposed to take, they usually take Salah al-Din street”, ElSayed said.
“The Israeli army has not provided them with any other solutions, with any means of transportation, with any fuel for ambulances or for any cars to transfer those patients, premature babies, displaced families to the south as they were ordered to do,” she added.
The hospital has been without food, water, electricity and oxygen for at least a week, while Israeli troops and tanks raided the facility over the last couple of days.
Israel claimed Hamas has a command centre underneath the hospital, but found no evidence to support its claim. Hamas and hospital staff have always rejected the Israeli assertions.
Source: Al Jazeera
-Agencies
