‘Critical situation’ at children’s hospital as Israel renews Gaza attacks

The director of the only major hospital in the northern part of the Gaza Strip that now provides special care for children described a “dangerous situation” as Israeli forces launched new ground and air strikes in the north and center of that place.

Dr Husam Abu Safiyeh, director of the Kamal Adwan Beit Lahiya hospital, said it was impossible to follow the Israeli army’s order to evacuate all patients within 24 hours.

He said: “We have seven cases in intensive care … all these cases are very serious and all require intensive surgical or medical attention.” “Moving or transporting these patients puts their lives at great risk, it is impossible to transfer them. Besides, there is no center in Gaza that has the capacity to take them as they are all full of their cases the same.”

The latest attacks and strikes came on the sixth day of an Israeli offensive targeting the devastated villages of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun and the Jabaliya refugee camp, all of which saw heavy fighting in the first months of the war. . The attack has trapped hundreds of thousands of civilians in rapidly worsening conditions.

In the south, an Israeli attack on a refugee shelter in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed at least 26 people, including a child and seven women, Palestinian officials said on Thursday.

Dr Eid Sabah, director of the nursing department at Kamal Adwan Hospital, which provides pediatric intensive care and a malnutrition clinic, said the ambulance team evacuated some patients but not all. .

The hospital is now short of medical supplies as well as diesel for its generators, which means a shortage of electricity and oxygen. Doctors said that 100 dead and more than 300 injured people have been brought to the center in recent days, including many children. “Until this moment, none of the workers inside the hospital were able to get out because of the danger of the bomb blast,” said Sabah.

Israeli forces gave evacuation orders to the residents of Jabaliya and other parts of Gaza before starting their operation, but one resident of Jabaliya said they were trapped in their homes by the fighting and food they were ending.

Heba Abu Habl, who has three daughters and two sons, has left their home 18 times since he first left Beit Lahiya at the beginning of the war, and is now stuck in Jabaliya.

“We have been trapped for days and we don’t know where to go. All areas are dangerous and bombarded with heavy and indiscriminate bombing. We finally decided to stay where we are… but we have no water or food and we can’t sleep at night because of the intensity of the bombings,” Abu Habl, 38, said.

Gaza’s health department said it found 40 bodies in Jabaliya, a densely populated area in northern Gaza, between Sunday and Tuesday, and 14 more from northern towns.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, told X on Wednesday that at least 400,000 people were trapped in Jabaliya. “Many refuse [to evacuate] because they know very well that no part of Gaza is safe,” he added.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the attack on the school in Deir al-Balah. Witnesses said the strike targeted a temporary police station run by Hamas inside the security zone.

Israel has repeatedly attacked schools that have been turned into shelters in Gaza, accusing militants of deliberately using the population as human shields. Hamas has denied the accusation. Many of the shots have been directed at Gaza police, who Israeli officials argue are part of Hamas, and now most of them are withdrawing from the streets.

On Thursday, UN investigators accused Israel of deliberately targeting health facilities and killing and torturing medical workers in Gaza.

“Israel has carried out a concerted plan to destroy Gaza’s health system as part of a wider attack on Gaza,” the UN’s independent international commission of inquiry said in a statement.

Israeli officials say its forces do not target civilians and accuse Hamas of building control centers under hospitals and other public buildings. Hamas denies the accusation.

The Israeli military said the latest attack was aimed at stopping Hamas militants from carrying out further attacks from Jabaliya and preventing them from regrouping. Despite the group’s heavy losses, Hamas has continued to attack Israeli forces and fire occasional rockets into Israel in recent months. Israeli forces had to return to many areas that had previously been cleared of militants.

R Adm. Daniel Hagari, the spokesman of the Israeli army, said that the Israeli forces in Jabaliya killed about 100 fighters, without providing evidence.

The number of people killed by the Israeli attack in the area exceeded 42,000. More than two-thirds of those killed were women and children, according to Palestinian health authorities. Statistics do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

The war began on October 7 last year when waves of Hamas fighters broke through Israel’s security fence and attacked military bases and farming villages, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 250. Hamas is still holding about 100 prisoners inside Gaza who are believed to have died.

The conflict has devastated large areas of Gaza and displaced nearly 90% of its 2.3 million residents, often multiple times.