World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris said on 2 April that the destruction of Al-Shifa Hospital by Israel’s army has “ripped the heart out of healthcare” in the besieged enclave following a two-week-long siege.
Dr Harris said, “We’ve had contact with the staff; the [hospital] directors told us that Al-Shifa has gone; it’s no longer able to function in any way, shape or form” as a medical center.
Dr Harris noted to journalists in Geneva that Gaza’s once largest medical complex was “in ruins,” adding that at least 21 patients died as a result of the Israeli siege.
The WHO spokesperson said that the UN body is attempting to send a mission to Al-Shifa in hopes of saving the lives of patients still at the site; Dr Harris said that the major obstacle blocking this humanitarian mission had been obtaining permission from the Israeli authorities.
“We’ve been trying to go for days and days and days, and most of our missions have been rejected,” Dr Harris said.
Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a Doctors Without Borders intensive care Paediatrician, said that Israeli forces “executed tens of people, point blank, including one of our colleagues” at Al-Shifa.
“To say that this is a strategic targeting of Hamas is an insult to our intellect and our humanity,” Dr Haj-Hassan added. “This is a direct targeting of healthcare workers … They’re saying that when they leave the hospital, civilians give them civilian clothing because wearing scrubs is sticking a target sticker on their back.”
In response to Israel's attack on Al-Shifa, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a social media post that “An international investigation is an urgent necessity.”
Hamas released a statement on Monday condemning the Israeli attack on Al-Shifa, saying that this “horrific crime confirms the nature of this fascist entity that has deviated from the values of civilization and humanity.”
The resistance group said that the attack is a step toward Israel’s goal of "carrying out the most heinous genocidal wars against civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip” while the world turns a blind eye, adding that these crimes are being done with the support of Washington.
“We hold the [US] administration and President Biden personally fully responsible for the crimes, massacres, and systematic destruction of civilian life in the Gaza Strip, especially the health sector and hospitals, which occurred and is occurring with American weapons and all forms of military and political support and support,” Hamas said in their statement.
To date, the death toll from the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people has reached 32,916, 75 percent of whom are children, women, and the elderly.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller sought to justify Israel's attack on the medical complex by telling reporters not to "believe that this attack was on the hospital," but rather, “the attack was on the Hamas fighters that are hiding inside a hospital.”