WHO FEARS FOR HUNDREDS TOLD TO LEAVE GAZA HOSPITAL
▶ Health chief says whereabouts of people who were ordered to evacuate by Israeli forces are unknown
The head of the World Health Organisation said he received “troubling” reports of evacuation orders for Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, telling more than 600 patients and health workers to leave the hospital in central Gaza.
Israeli troops “forced over 600 patients and most health workers to leave”, WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media platform X yesterday.
“Their locations are not currently known,” he said, concerned that the hospital had “immense needs”.
UN inspectors visited the building in Deir Al Balah on Sunday.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 73 people were killed in the past 24 hours. About 100 others are believed to have been taken to the hospital in that time.
On Sunday, the ministry said Israeli drones had opened fire on buildings at Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital.
“At Al Aqsa, WHO staff reported sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors … Other injured were prostrate on the floor, being stepped over by the health staff and families,” Dr Tedros said.
Several international organisations have withdrawn their staff from the hospital “due to increasing military activity” around the complex, Dr Tedros said.
They included Medical Aid for Palestinians, or MAP, the International Rescue Committee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
MAP said one of its staff members is a patient at the hospital and had suffered injuries in an Israeli attack.
Several of her close relatives, including three of her sisters, were killed in the strike, the organisation said.
“The amount of injuries being brought in over the last few days has been horrific, and with a huge reduction in the number of staff able to come to the hospital there is even less capacity for treating them,” said Prof Nick Maynard, a surgeon and clinical lead for the emergency medical team, in an IRC statement.
“There are patients dying in the emergency department who could be saved if there were enough staff,” he said.
In the same statement, the organisations reiterated their call for hospitals to be protected.
The injuries have been horrific, and with a huge reduction in the number of staff able to come to the hospital
NICK MAYNARD
IRC surgeon
“The dismantling of health services witnessed in the north must not be repeated in the middle and south of Gaza,” they said.
Health professionals have been injured while at work treating the wounded, with strikes and attacks on hospitals characterising the darkest episodes of the war so far.
Ayman Nasser, a veteran paramedic who has worked in Gaza since 2004, was injured when responding to distress calls following an Israeli attack in Al Nuseirat. He was transferred to Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital.
“I was unconscious. When I woke up, I found myself in the hospital and doctors told me that they needed to amputate my right leg,” he said.
“It was a difficult decision to give them my approval. I wondered if I would have the ability to work again.”
Mr Nasser has suffered complications from the operation.
“I need to get proper treatment, which is not available here. I could lose my other leg because of nerve damage,” Mr Nasser said.
He hopes to learn how to walk using a prosthetic leg.
“All I want is to go back to work and rescue my people,” he said.
Naseem Hassan, a paramedic officer in the ambulance and emergency unit in Gaza’s Health Ministry, said he and his colleagues face difficulties in their rescue operations at Al Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza.
“We worry all the time that our ambulances will be attacked,” he told The National, adding that members of other teams have been hit by Israeli bombings.
There is such a high number of casualties that civilians sometimes help paramedics to move the injured, he said.
A paramedic in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, was injured when Israeli forces opened fire at his team as they tried to rescue a young boy.
“I managed to flee the area as my colleagues were unable to reach me for evacuation due to the intense gunfire,” Mohammed Radwan told The National.
“I ran for approximately a kilometre while bleeding until I found another ambulance to transport me.”
He was unable to rescue the boy. Mr Radwan said his injuries have limited his ability to perform his duties.
“All I ask for is to be able to work safely.”