Gaza: The biggest hospital is under siege

Al Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, is under siege, with Israeli tanks taking up positions outside it, as reported by international news agencies.

Israel's military is stepping up operations around the hospital, which it claims is on top of tunnels housing a Hamas militant headquarters, accusing the group of using patients as "shields".

The World Health Organization issued a dramatic warning, describing the Al-Shifa hospital as a "graveyard", with corpses piling up inside and outside it.
"Dozens of premature babies and kidney patients in need of dialysis cannot be treated properly due to a lack of energy," a UN spokesman said.

Amid reports of babies dying due to lack of electricity and patients facing sniper fire, a surgeon working for Doctors Without Borders said the situation inside the hospital had become "very bad". "We don't have electricity. There is no water in the hospital. There is no food," the doctor declared.

The two largest medical facilities in Gaza, Al Shifa and Al Gonds hospitals, stopped operating on Monday, citing a lack of fuel to keep medical equipment running.

A spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry said that due to the lack of fuel, all hospitals in the besieged enclave could be closed within 48 hours. The spokesman said health care has already been shut down, particularly in northern Gaza.
For his part, US President Joe Biden said that hospitals in the Gaza Strip must be protected, expressing hope for "less intrusive" actions from Israel.

Israel accuses Hamas militants of using the hospital as a command "hub", a charge Hamas denies.

However, Israel says it is not targeting the hospital, and to prove it, it says it is coordinating the transfer of incubators for newborns from an Israeli hospital to Al Shifa Hospital. "The IDF remains committed to upholding its moral and professional responsibilities to distinguish between civilians and Hamas terrorists," the IDF spokesman said. "The IDF is willing to work with any credible intermediary to ensure the transfer of the incubators," the Israeli military said.

Israeli soldiers were inside the parliament of the Gaza Strip, raising the flag of their country, as published by Israeli media.

The photo that has come to light shows the soldiers inside the Hamas parliament, proudly holding Israeli flags in the organization's legislative council building.

Source: Cnn.gr