TOTALLY DAMAGED: Surgical ward at Al Awda hospital after an Israeli attack on 21 November. Three doctors were killed. The picture is the last MSF has from the hospital. Photo: Doctors Without Borders
At the same time, the hospitals in Gaza are close to total collapse. – The situation is extremely precarious, says secretary general of Doctors Without Borders Lindis Hurum.
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- The hospitals in Gaza are close to a total collapse, after several Israeli attacks and sieges.
- Doctors Without Borders says that hospital staff have been stripped and tied up for questioning by Israeli forces.
- Secretary General of Doctors Without Borders says that the arrests of employees are unacceptable and that the situation in the hospitals is “extremely precarious”.
Sea view
After a twelve-day siege, Israeli forces this week took control of the Al Awda hospital in northern Gaza, reports MSF.
The hospital was the only one in northern Gaza that was still partially operational, but over the past ten weeks has been stormed and damaged in attacks.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that northern Gaza is without a single functioning hospital.
– There is only one consequence of that, and that is that people die, says secretary general of Doctors Without Borders Lindis Hurum to VG.
Secretary General of Doctors Without Borders Lindis Hurum Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB
It was at the Al Awda hospital that three doctors were killed in an Israeli attack in November. Two of them were MSF employees.
Hurum says that they now have six employees at the hospital.
When Israeli soldiers took control of the hospital on Sunday, men over the age of 16, including MSF employees, are said to have been harassed,
– We received reports from our colleagues that Israeli forces had dragged them out into the courtyard, stripped them, tied them up and interrogated them over several hours, says Hurum.
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The photo was taken in a stairwell at Al Awda after the attack on 21 November. What looks like blood can be seen on the wall. Photo: Médecins Sans Frontières A broken board in the surgical department, which usually shows the plan for which patients are to be operated on. On the board is the text from doctor Mahmoud Abu Nujaila: “Whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we could. Remember us”. Nujalia died in the attack on 21 November. Photo: MSF
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The photo was taken in a stairwell at Al Awda after the attack on 21 November. What looks like blood can be seen on the wall. Photo: Doctors Without Borders
After the interrogations, most of them were sent back to the hospital, where they were told not to move, according to Hurum.
– This is a new twist. There is a new frontier being moved right before our eyes – that a hospital is besieged for so many days, and then this happens. Then there are almost no rules left.
CNN asked the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday for comment on the alleged arrests at Al Awda Hospital, but did not receive a response.
When the American broadcaster has previously asked the Israeli forces about military operations around this hospital, the IDF has replied:
“The IDF is fighting against the terrorist organization Hamas, which uses civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, kindergartens and ambulances in the service of terror. The IDF recognizes the special status that medical teams and ambulances have, according to international law. IDF forces do not operate inside the hospital, but operate against military targets on the hospital grounds.”
VG has previously written about what are supposed to be Palestinians who are said to have been arrested, stripped and tied.
Must have aimed at UN vehicles
The reports from Al Awda are also not the first to have come about arrests of civilian health workers.
BBC has spoken to British UN worker Jake Morland. On 9 December, he was on his way to the Al Ahli hospital, as part of an emergency aid convoy initiated by the WHO, the UN and the WHO, to deliver emergency aid to the hospital, the BBC writes.
Morland says that at a checkpoint they were allegedly met by Israeli soldiers who aimed machine guns at the UN vehicles.
FEATURED: A doctor at Al Ahli hospital shortly after an airstrike in Gaza City on October 17. Photo: MOHAMMED SABER / EPA / NTB
Two of the medical workers are said to have been questioned.
– We understand that someone was put on their knees, stripped and interrogated for a while before we were able to negotiate a release, says Morland.
For its part, the IDF says that one of the health workers who was arrested was “suspected of links to terrorist activity”.
– Must end
On December 19, Al Ahli Hospital was stormed. The hospital has previously for many years been a partner hospital of the Norwegian Church Aid.
The Church’s emergency aid says that both staff and patients were arrested. Only a few employees remained with over 100 injured patients.
– Incredibly, Al Ahli Hospital had managed to maintain an effort to help the injured and sick in Gaza. Now this hospital can’t help either, says secretary general of the Church’s Emergency Aid Dagfinn Høybråten to VG.
– This must come to an end. The parties, together with the international community, must bring about a halt in hostilities, release the hostages and get massive humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Secretary General of the Church’s Emergency Services Dagfinn Høybråten Photo: Fredrik Solstad / VG
The Kamal Adwan hospital in the north of Gaza was also besieged over four days last week by the Israeli military, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The hospital was evacuated and will now be out of service.
– Many health workers have been reported arrested, said WHO spokesperson Richard Peeperkorn, according to Reuters.
– They raided the building and took all the employees for questioning, injured people were also questioned, doctor at the hospital Ahmed Al Kahlot told Reuters.
– Forced to undress
Similar reports also come from the occupied West Bank, where Hamas does not rule.
On Thursday last week, ambulance workers from the Khalil Suleiman hospital in Jenin were allegedly ordered out of the vehicle, stripped and forced to kneel in the street, while the patients remained in the ambulance, according to Doctors Without Borders.
On the same day, Israeli forces reportedly shot and killed an unarmed teenage boy inside the area of the hospital.
Doctors Without Borders says its staff witnessed what happened.
– We have witnessed the shooting and killing of a 16-year-old boy in the hospital area, soldiers shooting around and tear gas in the hospital. Ambulance personnel were forced to undress and kneel in the street, says Médecins Sans Frontières coordinator in Jenin Luz Saavedra in a statement on their websites.
TEAR GAS IN THE STREETS: A vehicle believed to belong to the IDF on a street near Jenin. Tear gas is fired in the background. The photo was taken on December 14, according to the EPA. Photo: ALAA BADARNEH / EPA / NTB
– Had to step over dead children
Lindis Hurum struggles to find words when she has to describe the conditions in Gaza now.
– It’s extremely precarious, I can’t find words. There are not enough words in the dictionary to be able to describe what is happening.
– A medical colleague in Gaza wrote that he had to step over dead children inside the hospital to get to those who are alive and need treatment.
Every day that passes becomes more difficult, she says. At Al Awda Hospital, which was besieged on 17 December, there are still dozens of patients in need of treatment – among them 14 children.
– If the bombs do not kill people, they will eventually die from simple infectious diseases, in childbirth, or from a lack of water or food, says Hurum.
HEAVY DAMAGE: Buildings at the Jabalia refugee camp, located near the al-Awda hospital, have been heavily damaged. The photo was taken on 21 November, according to Reuters. Photo: Reuters
The background for the hospital attacks is that Israel believes Hamas is hiding in the hospitals, which Hamas denies.
At the same time, the hospitals in Gaza are collapsing day by day. Less than a third of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially operational, according to the UN.
– There has been a massive reduction in the number of health workers in the Gaza Strip. At least 200 doctors have been killed so far in the conflict, says a WHO spokesperson.
At the same time, over 50,000 people have been injured in Israeli attacks. On top of the war damage, the hospitals are also overflowing with displaced Palestinians and sick patients.
Doctors Without Borders stated earlier in December that the Al Aqsa hospital in central Gaza receives more dead than wounded.
Published:
Published: 23.12.23 at 03:38
2023-12-23 02:38:21
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