The hours are dramatic at Gaza's largest hospital, Al Shifa, where Israeli forces have raided, interrogating doctors and patients and ordering young men to surrender.
The IDF claims they are pounding the hospital premises because Hamas has a command post underneath and is using underground tunnels to hold hostages there, a claim denied by doctor Ahmed Mokhallalati.
For the sixth day without food or drinking water
“Since last night, there has been really continuous, aggressive shooting, shelling and attacks. It's an absolutely terrifying time, it's a horrible time for the families, the citizens who are sheltering in the hospital with their children. It's terrible for the staff caring for the patients and for the patients themselves," the doctor told Al Jazeera.
He adds: “Imagine being in a hospital where there is no water, the basic hygiene of people going to the toilet is a challenge. Food and drinking water have not reached the hospital for the sixth day now."
"We can't even check out the window what's going on outside, we can't get anything to eat or drink"
At the same time, he wonders where the international community is. "What we really feel is shocking and bad is that the whole world is witnessing this crime. The whole world sees everything that is happening, but no one has stopped them and no one has said out loud that this is not allowed. Where is the international community?'
As Ahmed Mokhallalati describes, they can't go near the windows for security reasons, and doctors can't even attend to their patients or move from one building to another. “We're all inside the building now. We can't even check out the window what's happening outside, we can't get anything to eat or drink, we can't give anything to our patients and we can't move at all between the buildings," he says.
In recent days, global calls for a humanitarian ceasefire have grown and the fate of the hospital has been at the center of international concern due to the worsening conditions in its facilities.
According to the latest information from the Gaza Ministry of Health, there are approximately 2.500 people inside the hospital. These include medical teams, patients - including 600 wounded and 36 newborns - and evacuees housed there.
Israel says it has asked the civilians to surrender on the grounds that Hamas is using them as human shields. "We know it's a lie," says Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati.
In red are the hospital buildings attacked by the Israeli army
"They are brutally interrogated and humiliated"
Journalist Jihad Abu Shanab, who is inside Al Shifa, tells Al Jazeera that people inside the compound are "scared, brutally interrogated and humiliated".
"Since last night, it's been an unimaginable nightmare," he said in a telephone conversation with the Qatari media.
"Before they invaded the camp, they targeted all the floors, the generators, the communications unit, and now we can't have any contact with the outside world," he adds.
He described utter chaos overnight, with constant Israeli fire continuing until morning, when those inside the hospital discovered that Israeli forces had stormed the facility.
Now, he reports, the people inside are being harshly interrogated. “Everyone has been told to go up a floor, then go to a lower floor for investigation, and then they are subjected to interrogation accompanied by humiliating gestures. Eyewitnesses in the complex have said that there is absolutely no resistance and that only doctors, patients and displaced persons are in the hospital.
The interior of Al Shifa hospital after the Israeli raid
A warehouse with medical equipment was blown up
According to Quds News Network citing an Al Jazeera source, there are reports that Israeli forces blew up a warehouse of medical supplies, while continuing to ask those who have taken refuge in the hospital premises to gather in the courtyard.
"All males 16 and over, raise your hands and exit the buildings to the inner courtyard to surrender," they shout in Arabic over loudspeakers. About a thousand people are now in the courtyard of Al Shifa.
At the same time, gunfire is heard from the corridors of the various departments as Israeli soldiers search from room to room for Hamas fighters. The doctors say they are not going to leave their post because it would mean a death sentence for their patients.
Source: in.gr