Fears grow for people trapped in Gaza’s Nasser hospital after Israeli attack

Fears of being trapped inside Gaza’s main hospital grew after Israeli forces attacked the facility on Saturday, with the Hamas-controlled region’s health ministry saying several patients had died from a lack of oxygen.

At least 120 patients and five medical teams at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Younis are without water, food and electricity, the ministry said late Friday.

Fierce fighting has broken out in recent days around the hospital, one of the last major medical facilities still operating in the Palestinian territories.

Troops entered the hospital on Thursday based on what the military said was “credible intelligence” that hostages taken during Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Oct. 7 were being held there and some of their bodies may still be inside.

The military said it had arrested 20 people, seized weapons and retrieved “medicines bearing the names of Israeli hostages” from hospitals.

One witness, who declined to be named for security reasons, told AFP that Israeli forces shot “anyone inside the hospital”.

Gaza’s health ministry also said that after the attack, power was cut and generators stopped running, resulting in the deaths of five patients.

It said it held Israel “responsible… given that the complex is now under full Israeli control”.

The Israeli army insists it has done everything it can to keep the hospital powered. “The troops worked to repair the generator while … special forces brought in a replacement generator,” it said.

But the World Health Organization on Friday slammed Israel’s actions, with spokesman Tarik Jasarevich telling reporters that “the deterioration of hospitals means more lives lost”.

“Patients, health workers and civilians who seek refuge in hospitals deserve to be safe, not buried in these treatment facilities.”

“Attack Mode”

Médecins Sans Frontières said its medical staff were forced to flee and leave patients behind, with one employee missing and another detained by Israeli forces.

According to AFP statistics based on official Israeli data, Hamas launched an attack on Israel in October, killing about 1,160 people, most of them civilians. About 130 hostages are still believed to remain in Gaza.

During a week-long truce in November, dozens of the approximately 250 hostages held in the attacks were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Israel says 30 people still in Gaza are presumed dead.

According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled territory, at least 28,775 people, mostly women and children, were killed in subsequent Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas militants of using the hospital for military purposes, but Hamas denies this.

The UN Human Rights Office said the Israeli attack on Al-Nasser Hospital appeared to be “part of a pattern of Israeli military attacks on vital life-saving civilian infrastructure in Gaza, particularly hospitals.”

“die slowly”

About 1.4 million displaced civilians are trapped in the town of Rafah, sheltering in makeshift camps near the Egyptian border but with supplies dwindling.

“They are slowly killing us,” said Mohammed Yaqi, a displaced Palestinian.

“We are dying slowly due to lack of resources and lack of medicines and treatments.”

U.S. President Joe Biden late Thursday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to launch an offensive against Rafah without a plan to protect the safety of civilians, the White House said.

But Netanyahu insisted he would press ahead with “strong” action in Rafah to achieve a “complete victory” over Hamas.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that Israel would coordinate with Egypt before launching the operation.

“Egypt is our ally, we have a peace agreement with Egypt and we will operate in a way that does not harm Egypt’s interests,” Katz told reporters in Munich.

Biden said he also had “extensive” conversations with Netanyahu about the need for a new truce in Gaza to bring the remaining hostages home.

“I feel very strongly about this – there has to be a temporary ceasefire to get the prisoners, the hostages out,” he said.

Hamas militant group said the situation in the Gaza Strip has worsened as hostages in the Gaza Strip “struggle for survival” due to Israel’s relentless bombardment.

Egypt is building a walled camp near the border to house Palestinians displaced from Gaza, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing Egyptian officials and security analysts.

Egypt has repeatedly opposed any “forced displacement” from Gaza, warning it could jeopardize the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said any mass exodus would be “catastrophic” for Egypt and the Palestinians.

“The bottom line is that a further refugee crisis will almost be the nail in the coffin of the future peace process,” Grandi told the BBC.

israel shootings

On Friday, a gunman killed two people and wounded four others at a crowded bus station in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Malakhi, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of Gaza. .

Netanyahu warned that the entire country had become a frontline and said “the killers are not just coming from Gaza but want to kill us all”.

The war is now in its fifth month and tensions remain high in the region.

Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, Hamas ally Hezbollah and its old enemy Israel have exchanged fire on the border almost every day.

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, vowed that Israel would “pay with blood” for civilians killed in Lebanon and warned that Hezbollah has missiles that can reach anywhere in Israel.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from Yonhap News Agency-AFP)