“Death Zone”.. The World Health Organization visits Al-Shifa Hospital and reveals the number of people in it

The World Health Organization said in statement A humanitarian assessment team led by the World Health Organization visited Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, on Saturday, to assess the situation, describing the largest medical complex in the besieged Strip as a “death zone,” and that there are more than 300 people, including patients and medical care providers, still present there. .

On a mission that the organization described as “high-risk,” the team included public health experts, logistical personnel, and security personnel from various United Nations departments.

The organization said that due to security risks, the team was only able to spend one hour inside the hospital, describing it as a “death zone.”

She added that 291 patients and 25 caregivers were still in the hospital on Saturday.

Signs of bombing and shooting were clear. The organization’s statement said that the team saw a mass grave at the entrance to the hospital and was told that more than 80 people were buried there.

The shortage of clean water, fuel, medicine, food and other basic assistance over the past six weeks has caused the hospital, once the largest, most advanced and best-equipped referral hospital in Gaza, to cease functioning as a medical facility.

The team also noted that due to the security situation, it was impossible for staff to carry out effective waste management in the hospital.

The organization indicated that the corridors and hospital grounds were filled with medical and solid waste, which increased the risk of infection. Patients and health staff who spoke with the team were terrified for their safety and health and appealed to them to evacuate.

Al-Shifa Hospital is no longer able to accept patients, as the wounded and sick are now being directed to the overburdened and barely functioning Indonesian Hospital, according to the organization.

The organization said in the statement that it is working with its partners to “develop urgent plans for the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families.”

The Director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a tweet X The organization’s team “saw a hospital inoperable: no water, no food, no electricity, and medical supplies were exhausted.”

“Given this unfortunate situation and the condition of many patients, including infants, health workers have requested support to evacuate patients who can no longer receive life-saving care there. We are working with partners to develop an urgent evacuation plan and request full facilitation of this plan,” he added.

He concluded his tweet by saying: “We continue to call for the protection of health and civilians. The current situation is unbearable and unjustified.”

Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, became the focus of the operation carried out by Israel, amid its accusation that Hamas used the hospital as a leadership center, which the movement denies. The army stormed the hospital at dawn on Wednesday.

Hundreds came out

Sources reported that the Israeli army “gave everyone in the Shifa Medical Complex in the Gaza Strip one hour to evacuate it,” on Saturday. Agence France-Presse reported that “hundreds left on foot,” while the army said that it “did not request the evacuation of patients or medical staff from the hospital.” .

The Israeli army explained in a statement that it “responded to the hospital director’s request to allow the displaced persons wishing to leave the medical complex to exit toward the humanitarian corridor.”

The Israeli army spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said in a statement: “This morning, the IDF responded to the request of the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, to allow Gazans who were displaced to the hospital and wish to be evacuated from it towards the humanitarian corridor in the Gaza Strip, through a secured road.”

The statement continued: “We confirm that the IDF did not request the evacuation of patients or medical staff, but rather confirmed that if a request is received to coordinate a medical transfer, the IDF will work to allow this and transfer patients to other hospitals.”

He added: “Medical teams will remain inside the hospital to serve patients who do not intend or cannot be evacuated.”

Agence France-Presse reported, on Saturday, that “hundreds of people walked out of Al-Shifa Hospital,” while a health source indicated to the agency that “450 patients are stuck in Al-Shifa Hospital.”

Meanwhile, health authorities in the Gaza Strip reported that premature babies were still hospitalized.

Al-Hurra’s correspondent reported earlier, on Saturday, that the Israeli army demanded the evacuation of the Shifa complex “within one hour.”

She also explained that there are about 120 patients with severe injuries, most of whom cannot walk, and “we do not yet know how they will be dealt with.”

Agence France-Presse said, “The Israeli army requested, via loudspeakers and in contact with the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, Muhammad Abu Salamiya, to evacuate it of all those in it, including the sick, the injured, the displaced, and the medical staff, and to head towards Al-Bahr Street on foot, giving them one hour to do so.”

While the Palestinian News Agency “Wafa” reported that the evacuation process took place through one exit from the hospital, where they headed on foot towards Al-Wahda Street, and from there to Omar Al-Mukhtar Street, then Salah Al-Din Road, and then to the southern areas of the Strip.

The agency quoted many doctors as saying that the exit process was “difficult, as they were forced to raise white flags, and the roads were not easy and difficult to recognize, due to the widespread sabotage of the infrastructure. The streets were no longer as they were, and the patients also faced difficulty in walking.” Some of them relied on crutches to continue walking, and they were in a state of extreme fatigue.”

On Wednesday, the Israeli army stormed the Al-Shifa Medical Complex and announced that “weapons were found inside it,” which is denied by Hamas and the medical teams present there.

On Friday, the army announced that it had “liberated the body of kidnapped soldier Noa Murciano from a building adjacent to Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip, and transferred it to Israeli territory.”

He also posted a video clip of what he said was “Hamas’ strategy to transform hospitals from health facilities into facilities for terrorist military use.”

This comes during the ground incursion carried out by the Israeli army into the northern Gaza Strip, which began on October 27.

The spark of war broke out on October 7, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, including women and children. The movement also kidnapped about 240 hostages, including foreigners, and transferred them to the Gaza Strip.

On the other hand, Israel has responded since that date with continuous bombing and ground incursions, which resulted in the deaths of more than 12,300 people, most of them civilians, including women and children, according to health authorities in the Palestinian Strip, which has been controlled by Hamas since 2007.