Israel-Hamas war: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, the city’s biggest medical facility, is “not functional as a hospital” anymore as Israel military continues to strike Hamas targets around the hospital.
“Constant gunfire and bombings” in the area around the hospital have “exacerbated the already critical circumstances,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
According to the al-Shifa hospital, another premature baby has died because of a lack of power, taking the number to three. There are dozens of newborn babies who need urgent medical help and the hospital says they could die soon if incubators and oxygen support machines didn’t start.
The Israeli military has offered to evacuate the babies to another hospital. The IDF troops also provided the hospital with emergency 300 ltrs of fuel to the hospital but claimed Hamas didn’t allow it to be picked up.
The emergency fuel, the hospital says, will not last for over an hour as the hospital needs some 2400 lts of fuel everyday.
Meanwhile, the Hamas-run health ministry has said that there are at least 2,300 people still inside the hospital.
Israel has been fighting Hamas troops around the hospital. According to the IDF, Hamas has an operational base underneath the Shifa hospital. There are tunnels, as per the IDF claims, that goes to the underground facilities of Hamas.
Israel has declared a war against Hamas in response to the Palestinian militant organisation’s brutal October 7 attack on Southern Israel. At least 1,200 people were killed and some 240 were kidnapped by Hamas during the attack.
In Gaza, more than 11,000 people have died in Israeli retaliatory strikes since the war began.