“We have called on the world, pleading to open a humanitarian corridor to bring in medical teams that can try to save those who can be saved from among the wounded.”
Only one doctor remains at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza after the facility’s medical staff were either detained or forced out by the Israeli army, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
“One pediatrician remains,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday as it called on international organizations to urgently send medical teams to assist at the hospital.
Israeli forces besieged the hospital last week, raiding it on Friday when it ordered all patients and medical staff to gather in the hospital’s courtyard. Dozens of health workers from among the 600 Palestinians trapped inside the hospital, were detained.
“Following the detention of 44 male staff members, only female staff, the hospital director, and one male doctor are left to care for nearly 200 patients in desperate need of medical attention,” the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Director-General Tedros Adhanom, said on X on Saturday.
The hospital director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, was amongst the medical staff rounded up by Israeli forces.
Plea to World
Following the army’s withdrawal on Saturday, Dr Abu Safiya described in a video message, the “extremely catastrophic” situation at the hospital.
“After the army’s withdrawal, about 31 people from our medical staff were either taken or arrested, which has now left us with very few numbers,” he said.
More than 145 injured patients were needing medical care or “surgical services”, he explained, adding “I don’t have the service, it’s unavailable.”
“We have called on the world, pleading to open a humanitarian corridor to bring in medical teams that can try to save those who can be saved from among the wounded,” said the hospital director.
Zero Supplies
Dr Abu Safiyya said a large number of patients have died due to the lack of resources.
“Ambulances have been entirely paralyzed, so we are asking the world to allow ambulances in to help transfer cases between hospitals,” he stressed.
“All our supplies have reached zero… the entire system is collapsing,” he said.
Dr Abu Safiyya’s son, Ibrahim, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday, following the director’s refusal to abandon the hospital.
“My son was killed because we are carrying a humanitarian message,” he said tearfully.
“Our children are being killed. I buried my son by the hospital wall.”
The northern Gaza Strip has been under total siege by Israeli forces for more than three weeks, with all access to food, water and medical aid cut off.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in 24 days of the siege.
Over 42,000 Killed
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 43,020 Palestinians have been killed, and 101,110 wounded in the ongoing genocidal assault.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Millions Displaced
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
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