Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital
Expressing deep concern, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a loss of communication with contacts at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, currently under Israeli siege.
The organization fears for the safety of premature babies on life support, hundreds of patients, and health workers. There is a belief that these contacts may have joined the large number of displaced Palestinians fleeing from northern Gaza.
The Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean stated, “WHO has lost communication with its contacts in Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza. As distressing reports of the hospital facing repeated attacks surface, we presume our contacts have joined the tens of thousands of displaced people fleeing the area.”
A health official revealed that an Israeli air strike obliterated the cardiac ward of Al-Shifa Hospital. Youssef Abu Rish, the deputy health minister, reported, “The occupier (Israel) completely destroyed the cardiac department of Al-Shifa hospital… The two-story building has been completely destroyed in an air strike.”
The Health Ministry indicates that there are still 1,500 patients at Shifa, including 1,500 medical personnel and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter. Thousands have fled Shifa and other hospitals under attack, but evacuation for everyone remains impossible.
Expressing urgency, the International Committee of the Red Cross director general, Robert Mardini, declared on social media, “The unbearably desperate situation at Shifa must stop now.”
Additionally, strikes on a United Nations facility in Gaza City, where hundreds sought refuge, resulted in casualties, as confirmed by the UN.
Meanwhile, the non-governmental organization that supports the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza has accused Tel Aviv of spreading false information to justify an attack on the hospital.
The organization, which funded the hospital’s construction and sent Indonesian volunteers, rejected the Israeli military’s claim that the medical center was used by Hamas to launch attacks.
The Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahiya was established in 2015 through donations raised by the Jakarta-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C).
Three Indonesian volunteers have been working at the hospital since Israel’s recent military actions in Gaza.
This hospital is one of the few remaining medical facilities in the region, having treated over 3,500 Palestinian civilians, while Israel continues its daily bombardment of the densely populated area in response to an attack by Hamas on October 7.
The Israel Defense Forces have accused Hamas of using hospitals in Gaza as operational bases. They claim that the Indonesian hospital is being used as an underground command and control center.
