" 'Final distress call' from Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital as Israel turns facility into kill zone
The UN has warned that tens of thousands of Palestinians face 'imminent death' in the north of Gaza due to indiscriminate Israeli attacks on hospitals and shelters and a complete blockade on food and medicine
Officials from Gaza's health ministry on 4 November issued a “final distress call” about the dire situation developing in north Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital, which has been under a violent siege by the Israeli army for the past several weeks.
“Perhaps a last distress call: The occupation forces continue to heavily bombard and destroy Kamal Adwan Hospital, affecting all of its facilities. There are numerous injuries among the medical staff and patients, and the medical teams are unable to move between the hospital departments or save their injured colleagues,” the statement reads.
"It appears that a decision has been made to execute all the staff who refused to evacuate the hospital."
Heavy artillery fire has been hitting the hospital over the past several days, causing injuries to patients and staff, including those in the pediatrics ward and the intensive care unit (ICU).
Doctors told reporters that a four-day-old child was the only survivor of an Israeli attack at the hospital's ICU.
“The Israeli military has banned the World Health Organization (WHO) and other medical missions from reaching the hospital. It is also preventing anyone from the outskirts of the hospital from reaching it for medical assistance,” Al Jazeeracorrespondent Hani Mahmoud reported on Monday evening from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
“There is not one single ambulance left that’s operating in northern Gaza. There’s an acute shortage of all basic medical supplies, and the hospital has basically turned more into a graveyard than a health facility,” he added.
On 25 October, Israeli troops invaded Kamal Adwan and forcibly abducted over 30 medical staff, leaving only two doctors inside the only health center in the north that had any capacity to handle the deluge of wounded Palestinians. Later, the hospital's director, Dr Hussam Abu Safieh, was released alone, only to learn that the invading army had killed his eight-year-old son.
"Israeli artillery shells are falling on us from all directions, and drone aircraft are firing on anyone who moves,” Safieh told reporters on Sunday. "We are experiencing a genocide inside the hospital."
Since the start of October, Israel has turned the north of Gaza into an “extermination zone,” trapping tens of thousands of Palestinians. The bodies of at least 1,800 victims have been recovered during that period by search and rescue teams who are also under constant attack.
The Israeli military has acknowledged targeting the hospitals on purpose, repeatedly claiming without evidence that Hamas fighters are using them as bases. Gaza hospitals are typically full of patients and displaced families whose homes have been destroyed.
Furthermore, no food, water, medicine, or aid has been allowed into the north of Gaza for the past 30 days. Last week, UN officials warned that every person in the north of Gaza is at “imminent risk” of dying.
"The entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and violence," reads the statement issued by the acting UN aid chief Joyce Msuya, the heads of UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP), and other aid groups.
"Humanitarian aid cannot keep up with the scale of the needs due to the access constraints. Basic, life-saving goods are not available. Humanitarians are not safe to do their work and are blocked by Israeli forces and by insecurity from reaching people in need," they added, describing the situation for Palestinians in north Gaza as “apocalyptic.”